Lee Eun-hae [Newsis]
Lee Eun-hae [Newsis]

Lee Eun-hae, serving a life sentence for the so-called Gapyeong valley murder, was disciplined at a detention facility after being caught gambling with postage stamps, it has emerged.

According to KBS, Lee received a nine-day solitary confinement penalty last year for "speculative stamp trading." She was reportedly caught using handmade cards fashioned from A4 paper and wagering postage stamps in a gambling game.

Stamps have come to function in effect as cash inside correctional facilities, even serving as gambling chips. More than 1,000 inmates have been caught over the past four years using stamps as casino-style chips.

Inmates made their own hwatu cards out of large envelopes and used registered postage stamps — each worth 3,830 won — as betting currency. Daily stakes in some sessions reached 250,000 won ($186) worth of stamps, and in at least one case a single player lost stamps worth 1 million won ($744).

Stamps were also used as currency for transactions beyond gambling. Inmates would hand over stamps to fellow detainees in exchange for doing their laundry or washing their dishes.

So-called "errand services" operating inside facilities reportedly took a 30 percent cut of the stamps' face value, converted the remainder into cash and deposited it into inmates' personal accounts.

A former inmate identified only as A said, "If you have more than 100 stamps, you can get by comfortably without doing any dishes or laundry."

The total amount spent on stamps at correctional facilities nationwide has also risen sharply. While not all stamps can be assumed to have been used for gambling, stamp purchases at prisons across the country increased by about 5 billion won over the past four years.

Last year alone, 980 inmates each purchased more than 1.5 million won worth of stamps.

Kim Ki-pyo, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said the practice "must be strictly punished, because the financial connections it creates can encourage other illegal activities as well."


bbo@heraldcorp.com