Twenty-one people, including TV personalities and a former K-pop singer, have been indicted on charges of betting on illegal sports gambling websites, state prosecutors said Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors‘ Office probing the case said the suspects allegedly wagered up to hundreds of millions of won on football teams in the English Premier League through private gambling websites, which are illegal venues.

In South Korea, the only legal form of sports betting is through buying Sports Toto lottery tickets operated by a state-licensed brokerage company. Sports Toto offers odds on wins, ties, losses and the combined scores between teams. A bettor can only wager 100,000 won per ticket up to six times a day.

Comedian Lee Soo-geun, singer Tak Jae-hoon and Tony An, a former member of the popular 1990s boy band HOT, will stand trial without physical detention, prosecutors said.

The prosecution office has summarily indicted three others ― Andy, a member of boy band Shinhwa; Lee Min-ho, better known by his stage name Boom; and comedian Yang Se-hyung ― as the amount of gambling money was relatively small.

Most of the celebrities admitted to the gambling allegations during the investigation, prosecutors said, adding that they have all lost the money through the alleged gambling. (Yonhap News)