Police have apprehended 130 members of a criminal ring that operated an illegal gambling website from the Philippines, where about 1.3 trillion won ($1.09 billion) was bet over a two and a half year period, officials said Wednesday.

Of them, nine have been formally arrested, and the group's leader, who had fled to the Philippines, will be repatriated to South Korea, the international crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.

The group was found to have streamed gambling games from an unidentified hotel casino in the Philippines and run sports betting games on its website from July 2018 to December 2019.

During that period, the group received about 1.3 trillion won from people for gambling, according to the police.

Police investigated the group for some two years after getting a tip-off in September 2019 and identified all of its 150 members, catching 130 of them. Red notices have been issued for the remaining 20 others.

Police also confiscated criminal proceeds worth about 800 million won, wired to South Korea in cryptocurrencies. (Yonhap)