A business owner who ran a so-called “swapping and viewing club” in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, by recruiting people from social media has been sentenced to probation in a first trial. Swapping is when two or more couples 스포츠토토have sex with each other while switching partners.
On June 6, Kim Chang-mo, deputy chief judge of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 14, sentenced the club owner, A, 48, to one year in prison and two years’ probation for violating the Food Sanitation Act and the Business Regulation Act, and ordered him to pay 115 million won ($115,000). His co-operator and employee were each sentenced to six months in prison and two years’ probation.
The Act on the Regulation of Entertainment Businesses is a law aimed at preserving good public morals and protecting youth from harmful environments by regulating acts that harm good public morals or hinder the healthy growth of youth in places that operate entertainment businesses.
A and others were reported to the police in July last year. They are accused of recruiting men and women for swapping on SNS such as Twitter and mediating swapping activities at a restaurant in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu. They are also suspected of violating the Food Sanitation Act because the restaurant was reported as a regular restaurant.
They took reservations for visitors and charged an entrance fee of 100,000 to 150,000 won per person. They provided customers with contraceptives and sexual devices, set up separate rooms for sex, and arranged for dancing and singing.
According to the Food Hygiene Act, customers can only dance in establishments that have a license to operate as entertainment bars. Even if they have a license, they are prohibited from soliciting obscene acts.
Customers paid an entrance fee of 100,000 to 300,000 won to participate in swapping or watch others swap. According to police, there were 14 men and 12 women in the club at the time of the raid.
None of the patrons were charged with criminal offenses. This is because there is no legal basis to punish them. Police determined that the patrons had engaged in “voluntary” group sexual behavior and sent them home without further investigation.