4 times. This is the number of times Lee Chun-woong (35, LG Twins), who caused controversy with illegal online gambling, denied the related information to the club. It is pointed out that he consistently lied to the club trying to figure out the facts and made the matter even bigger.
On the 31st of last month, Lee Cheon-woong denied illegal online gambling, saying, “I am absolutely not” to LG general manager Cha Myung-seok. On the morning of this day, when the report exclusively reported that online illegal gambling by team A in the metropolitan area was reported to the KBO Clean Baseball Center, LG contacted KBO and confirmed that the player involved in the report was Lee Chun-woong. When asked about the facts, the answer was “no”. LG, which was difficult to determine whether it was a negative report, put his name in the entry for the opening game on April 1, believing only the player’s words.
KBO, which judged that the report was credible, informed the LG club of this fact on the 5th. He also conveyed his position that he would request the prosecution to investigate the case. Immediately, LG confirmed the contents of the KBO’s verbal explanation to the player, but Lee Chun-woong’s answer was “no” at this time as well. The next day, Lee Chun-woong’s answer was the same in the interview with the general manager before being excluded from the first team entry. He consistently denied it. After Lee Chun-woong went down to the 2nd team on the 7th스포츠토토, LG conducted an investigation of the team in all directions. Here, Lee Cheon-woong’s suspicious behavior connected with some of his juniors was detected, and his attitude of denial did not change even when he asked, “Isn’t it you?”
On the 10th, LG sent Lee Chun-woong home. He judged that being with other players could lead to a bigger problem. And on the night of the 12th, Lee Cheon-woong contacted the general manager Cha Myung-seok during the game and admitted to illegal online gambling. An official from the LG club said, “I think he may have been psychologically pressured to say that it is not something that can be done by being alone at home.” On the 13th, Lee Cheon-woong, who asked for time to tell his family, turned himself in to the Suseo Police Station on the morning of the 14th.
According to the current KBO Rules Article 151 [Damage of Dignity], the level of punishment for illegal Internet gambling is ‘suspension of participating activities for more than one month, suspension for more than 30 games, or a penalty of more than 3 million won’. However, there is a provision that ‘in case of not reporting to the club or KBO within 10 days after the occurrence of drunk driving, drugs, gambling, sexual violence, etc., severe sanctions will be imposed’. Lee Cheon-woong, who repeatedly lied, passed the 10-day period from checking the facts of the club to acknowledging the charges.
The key is club discipline. The KBO decided not to impose its own internal discipline other than the KBO imposition sanctions while strengthening the drunk driving discipline in June of last year. It was the result of accepting the opinion that the ‘double discipline’ was unfair, but that doesn’t mean the club discipline disappeared altogether. On the 23rd of last month, the Lotte Giants released pitcher Seo Jun-won, who was sent to the prosecution on charges of kidnapping and enticing minors, after holding a disciplinary committee. Opinions gathered to avoid ‘double discipline’, but release is a different matter. Lee Chun-woong, who repeatedly lied and got the club into trouble, what level of discipline would he face?