"Shocked!" "Is this real?" Lotte has no disciplinary action against 'Go Na Kim' for illegal gambling on away trips... REPRESENTATIVE-Leader-PROUND FRONT ONLY

*This content was translated by AI.

It's a shocking decision. Even during illegal gambling during overseas training, which angered baseball fans, there was no disciplinary action by the Lotte Giants.

Lotte, which is holding the second spring camp in Miyazaki, Japan, said on the 27th, "First of all, I sincerely apologize to the fans who would have been disappointed by the deviation of the team," adding, "As a result of the KBO reward and punishment committee on the 23rd, Kim Dong-hyuk (26) was suspended for 50 games, and Ko Seung-min (26), Na Seung-yeop (24), and Kim Se-min (23) were suspended for 30 games. The club respects the results of the KBO reward and punishment committee and plans to faithfully implement them," he said.

There is no new story. The team will not take disciplinary action on its own.

The four players, called "Gona Kim" among fans, were under fire on the 12th after they were found to have used an electronic betting game at a gambling arcade near Lotte's first spring camp in Tainan, Taiwan. Lotte voluntarily reported the fact to the KBO Clean Baseball Center on the 14th after learning about the situation through the online community.

In this regard, KBO suspended Kim Dong-hyuk, who was confirmed to have visited the place three times, for 50 games, and disciplinary measures were taken against Ko Seung-min, Na Seung-yeop, and Kim Se-min, who visited each time, for 30 games each.

KBO said, "We decided to impose sanctions based on Article 151 of the Covenant on Decency Damage," adding, "It was inevitable to punish severely because it occurred even after warning several times about the use of casinos and gambling businesses before the camp."

"The police investigation is currently underway, but we decided to impose preemptive sanctions in consideration of the social controversy caused by the players and the tarnished league image," he added. "Additional sanctions may be imposed depending on the results of the investigation in the future."

Everything about gambling has been acknowledged to be true. KBO said, "It was confirmed that the four players referred to the reward and punishment committee visited a gambling arcade located near Taiwan's Tainan accommodation, which was their team's first spring camp, on February 12 and used an electronic betting game."

It is another problem that occurred with Lotte players, who were at the center of various controversies such as drunk driving and privacy controversies. An issue that can be interpreted as being living without alarm. Even if KBO disciplinary action was taken, the team could also reprimand the players more strongly.

However, Lotte did not take any special measures. It can be said that they considered it more important to be excluded from power than to prevent such a thing from happening again.

The arrow was directed not at the players, but at the players who were supposed to manage them, not at the club and disappointed the fans.

Lotte said, "It was caused by individual deviations of the players, but the club is also feeling responsible for the unsavory incident that occurred at the training site," adding, "As a result, we have imposed disciplinary measures on the front managers in charge as well as severe disciplinary measures on the CEO and the general manager."

It may be expected that such disciplinary action will lead to stricter and more thorough management at the club level, but it is also true that the arrow seems to be headed to the wrong place.

It plans to refine the relevant regulations more strictly to prevent athletes from deviating. Lotte said, "We will prevent recurrence by reorganizing internal regulations so that we can restore trust with our fans," and promised, "We will look back on whether there were any shortcomings in all areas, including compliance education, including the operation of the team, and strengthen the shortcomings."

Finally, he said, "We will do our best to prepare responsibly for the rest of the year so that we can show good performance to our fans in the 2026 season," and added, "We bow our heads again and apologize for causing concern to our fans."

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*This content was translated by AI.