Baseball players were playing baccarat illegally online
Sixteen professional baseball players in South Korean are being investigated by police over suspicions of illegal online casino gaming.
Police have said that the bank accounts of players from three of South Korea's biggest professional baseball teams - The Samsung Lions, the Hanhwa Eagles and the Lotte Giants - are being reviewed amid allegations of illegal online casino gaming.
The sixteen players are thought to have bet millions of dollars playing baccarat over the internet in an online casino.
A spokesman from the local authorities said that the investigation was ongoing. He said:
"We examined whether other people borrowed the players' names for membership of the gambling site, but we secured evidence that the players themselves gambled."
Elsewhere, three South Korean entertainers - a former pop star and two television actors - were being investigated for the same crime.
The news comes as investigations continue into the illegal gaming of an LG Twins baseball player over illegal gaming on online casinos. Pitcher Oh Sang-min reportedly lost over $40,000 in illegal gaming after holding more than 60 gaming sessions in Daegu.
Baseball is not the only sport to have been at the centre of a criminal investigation. Three amateur football players were questioned in regards to illegal gaming in an online casino earlier in the year. South Korean police have also questioned national basketball and volleyball players suspected of gaming online.
Professor Seong Chang-hun, from the University of Incheon, said that because of their competitive occupation and high wages, players in professional baseball were more susceptible to gaming in online casinos.
"They face extreme competition during the season," he said. "They face extreme stress and gaming gives them an extreme thrill that can blow their anxiety away."