Gyeonggi Education Office Partners with Regulator in Youth Gambling Prevention Pact
The agreement will link with a 'phone free' strategy that is already prevalent in schools
Gyeonggi Province’s Office of Education has entered into a youth gambling prevention agreement with Korea’s Gambling Control Commission (KGCC).
The Memorandum of Understanding signed on Monday, aims to tackle rising gambling exposure among schoolchildren increasingly accessible through smartphones. This will be by integrating prevention education with broader school-based initiatives.
Partnership Details and Focus Areas
The agreement was signed at Osan Seongho Middle School and links gambling prevention education with a “Phone Free” strategy alongside RAS education. This is an approach combining reading, arts, and sports designed to occupy students’ time with structured, screen-free activities.
The dual approach seeks not only to limit access to gambling content on smartphones but also to provide meaningful alternatives that reduce reliance on digital devices.
The KGCC, which operates under the Prime Minister’s office and oversees gambling supervision and the monitoring of illegal gambling activity, will collaborate with the Gyeonggi education office.
This will be over policy coordination, student protection, and the exchange of educational resources and prevention experts.
The partnership also plans to analyse operational data, develop pilot programmes, and construct a model for national deployment.
A School-Centred, Sustained Approach to Prevention
The pact aims to establish a systemic policy cooperation mechanism targeting youth gambling prevention and student safeguarding. Rather than implementing short-term campaigns, the focus is on embedding gambling prevention into everyday school routines.
This includes combining restrictions on smartphone use with engaging RAS activities to effectively block and fill the time students might otherwise spend exposed to gambling content.
At the signing ceremony, Gyeonggi education chief An Min-seok emphasised the immediacy of the issue: “To effectively respond to youth gambling problems, close cooperation between the Office of Education, which best understands the school environment, and specialized prevention and treatment institutions is necessary.
He added, “I hope this agreement does not remain a mere event but leads to the implementation of practical policies”.
The KGCC recently swore in a new chairman in Spring of this year.
