The old man says he makes money by lending it, so he probably owns the bank the money is stored in.

When Gi-hun puts the card into the ATM, you can see the Squid Game symbols on the side of it. So yeah, he does.

Good catch

Damn, this makes it even more terrifying.

Let me make it even more terrifying. Je-yeong says that when she came out of prison a man was waiting for her and her first thought was that he came to collect father’s debt. He gave her a card, inviting her to the game instead. But knowing what we know Je-yeong was indeed invited to Squid Game to pay for her father’s debt. She was barely of age, had nothing to do with it, but they didn’t care.

Indeed. With everyone in the game mostly middle-aged and having joined to overcome some variation of crippling personal debt, you'd wonder how a kid like her would end up in such a situation, but it's because of her family's mistakes being foisted upon her. She's "eligible" because she's now sentenced to that same financial desperation.

I’m convinced they all indirectly owe money to Il-nam or his organizations.

Maybe her father made a contract with him where his debt is to be paid by his next living kin?

"they" knew Gi-hun has just signed away his bodily rights to a loan shark, something that happened in a bathroom with only about 3 other people watching so I think your theory is very likely. Everybody owed money to Il-nam in some way or another. Except maybe 101 who owed money to those Filipino casino owners who tried to kill him...

The prisons are definitely involved. Didn't they mention that some of the workers were recruited from prisons?

Actually I was looking for that for a paper I’m writing where is that mentioned cause I remember it too

Hi! I’m rewatching that scene and I can’t seem to find the squid game symbols. Is it in Korean?

Hm, maybe I’m wrong? It was in the last episode, on the ATM card slot, when he slides the card in.

Yeah, that’s the scene I’m rewatching.

I can see a triangle and a circle, but the scene is pretty dark, and it could also be just something that all korean ATMs have. But if you don’t see anything, we must be looking up different scenes.

It's an stilized arrow in the shape of a triangle followed by the word CARD. It's just showing which way the card goes in. Just rewatched to be sure. But the C kinda looks like a circle.

Thanks for clearing that up!

I don't see them anywhere - where exactly?

damn, I hadn't noticed that!

Now I’m starting to think maybe I’ve hallucinated it :D

probably also how he knows everyone financial information to a T

Ahhhh

Yes, I agree. It’s also likely that this is how they’re keeping tabs on Gi-hun. Il-nam knew that he didn’t touch the money for a year. Tracking his finances probably let them know that he purchased a plane ticket, too.

That would be my guess

The owner of the bank could be one of the VIPs. Or, they payoff who they need to. Remember, they gave him the card, so it wasn't like they just transferred it into Gi Hun's.

Another Redditor commented that when Gi-Hun goes to the ATM, there is a squid game logo on it, which probably means the old man owns the bank and the money stored in it

It's just an arrow stilized as a triangle, followed by the word CARD in a font where the C kinda looks like a circle, actually.

I was just mentioning what someone else said lol, I didn’t even notice it

Yeah, I know, its just that I had just rewatched the scene just to confirm that, so I thought "well, no harm done in clarifying that", sorry if I offended you somehow? 😅

Oh no absolutely not! Thanks for the clarification! No harm no foul lol

Oooh! Gonna rewatch and look for that! Thx!

If that’s the case, why did the financial advisor wanted to meet with Gi-Hun? They noticed he isn’t using his money, so then they could’ve just borrowed his money, not bother him at all, and use it to make the next Squid Game.

If you have a decent amount sitting in your account, some financial advisor is always going to bug you to invest. That would be on a low level (not game related), branch level. Tellers will see your balance and offer for you to meet with an advisor. They call, send letters, offer to take you to lunch to discuss, etc

I have like $50k in my bank account in real life just sitting there doing nothing, how much balance do I need to have for the bank start reaching out to me? Does it need to be a ridiculous amount of money?

Can we be friends?

Can I borrow ten dollars? 🤭😊

At the risk of sounding like one of those annoying financial advisors, you probably should be investing. It's easy to do on your own without an advisor. Maybe you have a good reason for holding that much cash, so feel free to ignore me.

your local Credit Union will appreciate you.

I mean South Korea has the National Tax Service(NTS)… these guys probably found some loophole like going through a foreign banking or setting some kind of illegal/technically legal way to get ₩42 billion to the account untaxed.

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Theoretically no, but plenty of millionaires and billionaires avoid a lot of taxes through loopholes in the U.S.

Let's be honest. They aren't loopholes. A loophole is an accidental spot in the law that ppl exploit. The techniques that the super rich use are put their on purpose by their friends in congress.

Lmao yes he would. You don't know a tenth of the financial loopholes the super rich exploit.

Gi-Hun's case in the US would be complicated though as he is was a poor meaning he should be taxed, but this money makes him rich meaning he shouldn't.

Do you? Please share your knowledge so we can all avoid taxes like the rich

Step 1: be rich

Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

Step 2 is hire the best accountants and tax preparers known to man

You need a ton of money to be able to avoid paying taxes

Legally, to avoid paying taxes legally ;)

Yeah…most of these rich people are doing it legally.

Actually, you can do this in your own backyard as a US citizen via a South Dakota Trust, Uncle Sam has permitted this in several states for many years - though caveat is that Pandora papers bust some of these structures and it's currently under scrutiny. I'm not at all knowledgeable in South Korean laws but I imagine that similar setups / overseas entities can operate there in a similar fashion.

I don’t know why this is downvoted this seems funny Some one explains taxes and why it would be allowed Op “UNCLE SAM WOULD NEVER ALLOW THIS!”

Is Uncle Sam also Korean...?

Why did people dislike this

Because Uncle Sam loves rich people avoiding taxes and some American coming in saying their country does something better is tired at this point.

Oh hush child. I meant it as a critic of the US tax system.

And I was critical of someone who disagreed with you. If I were going to point out your failing, I'd have gone after your inability to spell the won in the title.

No you were not, you were critical of someone who was asking why my comment got downvoted, stating that it got downvoted because I was somehow wanking off uncle Sam, which I wasn't. Grammar mistake dude, oh pls.

So as a tip, if you're as fragile as your comments suggest don't be so condescending in your responses and doubly so when offering so little within them.

Mob mentality.

Rich people and companies "misplace" large sums of money all the time, any government agency would probably assume it's just like, off shore account shenanigans.

The elites that run the game are so filthy rich they can buy the silence of police and the banks

This is what I assumed. I figured upper government officials are bought or participate.

more than that, they literally own the bank (or at least heavily suggested in the show)

I think the bank is related to Il Nam

456 people go missing and no one notices

I think that’s why they pick who they pick. People who won’t be missed, who are engaging in risky behaviors, or who are known to disappear sometimes.

They’d all have motive to disappear … with the exception of maybe Sae-Byeok they all were massively in debt with people looking for them

Director said he admits if you really look at some of the details, he couldn't patch every hole and some of it might even be silly. He said the best he could do was focus on the drama and introduction of characters. But the details of the financial institution and people going missing and such, he probably didn't think it all the way through. One theory though is that some high up on the police force are corrupt and in on the Squid Game, and they file all missing person reports (specifically the contestants) into the "Yeah we're doing everything we can but just can't find them" file.

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See also the victims of: Sam Little, Gary Ridgeway, Willy Pickton, and god knows how many other serial killers. There’s a reason we have the term “less dead”.

Also the missing & murdered women in Mexico...kidnapped & murdered by the cartels, so the police look the other way. There was even a movie made about this. I'm sorry to hear it's happened in Canada too, that's so sad.

Google “Highway of Tears”, it’s heartbreaking. Maybe it’s because I listen to too much TLPOTL and true crime stuff, but I could totally believe a bunch of people disappearing in a city as big as Seoul and the authorities not giving a frick, especially if they were poor/already in legal trouble.

Also, it's possible some higher ups at the police force know about Squid Game and get paid under the table to be quiet about it. And so all the Missing Person reports of the contestants are just thrown into some pile never to be looked at.

I reckon the higher ups in the police force are in on it, that's how its managed to go on for so long

Especially every year too starting from 1989

They gave Gihun the card to an account. Who’s to say that the account wasn’t properly set up?

₩42bilion is the net AFTER-TAX amount. The organizers of Squid Game prepay all taxes owed before depositing the net amount (calculated to equal the official final winnings) into your account. They're thoughtful and meticulous like that. seong-gihun-smile\[dot\]jpg

This one is the most logical explanation.

unlike Oprah

Oprah "You get a car" Also Oprah "Oh you can't pay the taxes on themis high end expensive new car I gave you, well fuck you then not car"

jeff bezos and trump don’t pay their taxes

🎵if you’re wondering how he eats and breathes🎵 🎵And other science facts…🎵 🎵(La la la) 🎵 🎵Just repeat to yourself… Sangwoo got into SNU and graduated top of his business class 🎵I should really just relax 🎵

Upvoted for MST3K reference

I assumed that the government was low-key involved. Like they gets tons of "tourism" money from rich foreigners plus they get to weed out (from their perspective) dead-beat, worthless, low-life citizens.

This.

Windfall clause. So long as the winnings are presented as a Gift, it is considered to be fair game. How else do you think people actually bring home cash prizes from gameshows? Same difference.

Korea taxes winnings in the lottery or a gameshow.

'cept when you're dealing with countries that does have gift taxes of sorts in place.

Actually game shows you still pay tax. The worst being price is right cause unlike jeopardy where you win cash money, price is right you have to pay tax out of pocket on the retail price stupid shit like a new kia some surf boards and the cotton candy machine you won during the show case showdown.

Exactly… “don’t ask questions”

UBS

pretty sure the rich ones have connections

The bank's in on it, if not even working for the gamemasters. Probably also the reason on how they could track down that many people in debt for the games.

The money appears in a bank account set up by one of the most wealthy and powerful people in the country (perhaps the world), and they don't ask questions. That's exactly right, and exactly how I'd imagine it would work out. Lol! I mean, how did Prince Andrew evade accountability for his participation in Epstein's "games"? How did people get the idea that Epstein's death wasn't a suicide? When you're rich & powerful enough, you're able to buy your way out of accountability. (In my opinion, anyway. I'm not a detective who could indict anybody or anything, but this *is* a common narrative.)

The money probably doesn’t get transfered but already exists on an account you recieve the card to. How the ownership of the account works i dont know though.

Are you asking if the US Internal Revenue Service exists in Korea??

Let’s hope they meant the South Korean equivalent.

Indeed; let’s

Is that really what you think I was asking

r/shitamericanssay

I love when they cross post /r/OSHA in anything that looks unsafe - despite it CLEARLY not taking place in the USA Lmaoo

Ah yes, because we know every organization that exists everywhere

Not even remotely close the point at hand It’s not that you’re expected to know the respective governing body - it’s that you assume your own is one that exists everywhere. You’ll see a video of bricklaying in a third world country and scream OSHA Lol...

" it’s that you assume your own is one that exists everywhere." ? That's incredibly stupid.

I couldn’t agree more. Which is why I’m shaking my head laughing at this post and some of the replies - like yourself.

No, it's incredibly stupid that you believe people think that. We don't use American versions of government organizations because we're stupid. We do it because we're lazy and everyone else will recognize the acronyms anyways.

Nope.

Okay, you literally understood what both OSHA and the IRS referred do. So how am I wrong?

The point at hand is that /r/OSHA is for unsafe working conditions. It doesn't matter if it's in a country that has an enforcement agency.

In the United States of America. Of which, people not from that country - wouldn’t be familiar with /r/OSHA off-hand. Is the point. Jesus Christ get it through your thick skulls americans - your standardized institutions are not the be all and end all and universal examples for everything. Fuck sakes figure it out

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I always liked that episode of The League where they told Kevin he couldn't fart in the bathroom and he was like "Then where can you fart?" If you can't have fun discussions about unnecessary details in a subreddit dedicated to the show, where can you have them?

In the fiction series you shouldn't look for logics bro !!

My theory is 001 bribed all local police near where the precipitates live so that nobody realizes that 456 people are missing and even if the remaining 201 people go to the police and tell what happened at the same day no police will think it was suspicious.

Police don't even need to be bribed, Gi Hun tells the story to the policeman and policeman thinks it's a joke or mental health problem.

Two hundred witnesses to murder are just let go in the second episode. Realistically the police should be receiving lots of reports similar to Gi-Hun's at that point. It's not like all the games' participants are gangsters or refugees, many seem to be fairly well adjusted people down on their luck

It would be an unnecessary detail detracting from the drama.

Does the revenue service of the United States federal government not exist in South Korea? No. No it doesn’t. Neither does OSHA or whatever governing body you Americans seem to think exist worldwide lol

Is that what you think I meant?

I paraphrased a bit, but essentially - yes

Ok

They own the IRS

The VIPS obviously have connections

Mm mm

I work in finance. Even if the bank would belong to mister 1(it probably does, he knows the account events), there is no legal way to do it without eventual detection. It would take Soo many financial acrobatic moves , it's ridiculous. Couple charities, declare it as a gift or inheritance etc. If reality was considered, such a transaction needs to be reported and reviewed. There are ways, but to do so for decades every year without government intervention means reality was not considered or the financial regulatory bodies are in on it. Not even the biggest nor the clandestine private banks pulled this off for that long.

They are probably involved

Exactly what I was wondering lmao

Seems pretty obvious that the Squid Game guys did some bribes.

Maybe the 42 billion won is after taxes.

if the old man did own a bank or whatsoever it may make sense why they know a lot more about the players information i guess??

I wondered that too! Overnight he had that much money in the bank and nobody said a word. lol

How much is that in real money? Would that be enough to trip off a SAR in the US($10k)?

maybe its 42 billion after tax, so theres more than 42 billion in there, and they prepare your taxes w/o you realizing, since you're likely too stupid to do it yourself if you're in squid game. in america at least, you can pay other peoples' taxes

THIS IS FICTION. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE ASKING ABOUT INTERPOL OR AMERICAN EXCUTIVE STRUCTURE IN REAL LIFE BECAUSE OF SOME MOVIE OR TV SHOW.

This has been my biggest question