BUSAN-- Two illegal sports gambling rings, together worth 900 billion won ($797 million), have been busted, leading to the arrests of 17 suspects, the Busan police agency said Monday.

The agency said its cybercrime investigation team has apprehended 38 people and put 17 of them under arrest for having illegally operated sports gambling sites. Seventeen users of the gambling sites were also booked on charges of violating the National Sports Promotion Act, it said.

Police are still tracking down one of the main culprits in his 40s, who fled abroad and has been placed on Interpol's most wanted list.

The fugitive is suspected of having operated an illegal sports gambling site in South Korea from March 2016 until recently, which was worth 800 billion won and had about 3,300 members, after installing servers in Vietnam, China and other foreign countries.

He is accused of having taken illegal profits while managing employees through various teams in charge of member management, currency exchange, bulletin board management and others.

According to the police, the fugitive helped one of his co-conspirators set up an independent online gambling site in 2018 by handing over operation know-how and a cash remittance service.

The co-conspirator is accused of having operated an illegal sports gambling site worth 100 billion won for about 1,800 members from June 2018 to March last year, police said.

The large-scale arrests came after police investigators raided the offices of the two gambling sites and the residences of their operators.

Police said they seized cash and real estate worth 8.12 billion won from the arrested suspects. The confiscated articles included 1.95 billion won in cash and three apartments and two detached houses, all in the capital area, police said, adding the properties appear to be bought with illegal profits. (Yonhap)