Kangwon Land: Why It's the Only Legal Casino for Korean Citizens

Kangwon Land stands as a unique institution in South Korea's gambling landscape. As the only casino in the entire country where Korean citizens can legally gamble, it represents an exception to the strict prohibitions that characterize South Korean gambling law. This comprehensive examination explores Kangwon Land's origins, operations, economic impact, social controversies, and secure monopoly status extending through 2045.

Origins: Economic Development Through Gambling

Kangwon Land's creation stems from economic necessity rather than gambling policy. The casino was established under the Special Act on the Assistance to the Development of Abandoned Mine Areas, enacted in 1995 to address severe economic decline in former coal mining regions.

During the mid-20th century, the Gangwon Province region relied heavily on coal mining for employment and economic activity. As coal mining declined due to reduced demand and mine depletion, communities faced devastating economic consequences. Unemployment soared, young people fled to cities, and the regional economy collapsed.

The South Korean government sought solutions to revitalize these abandoned mine areas. After considering various economic development strategies, lawmakers passed legislation permitting a casino where Korean citizens could gamble, representing an unprecedented exception to the country's general gambling prohibition.

The rationale was straightforward: a locals-only casino would create jobs, attract domestic tourism, and generate revenue for regional development. By restricting the casino to a remote location in an economically depressed area, the government aimed to channel gambling's economic benefits while minimizing social harms through geographical isolation and strict regulations.

Opening and Early Years (2000-2010)

Kangwon Land officially opened in October 2000, marking a watershed moment in Korean gambling history. The government-owned and operated facility was built at the site of a former coal mine in Sabuk-eup, Jeongseon County, one of the most remote areas of Gangwon Province.

The casino's remote location was deliberate. Located approximately three hours from Seoul by car, the distance served as a natural barrier against casual gambling, ensuring that only those willing to make significant travel efforts would visit. This geographical isolation aligned with the government's goal of permitting gambling while limiting accessibility.

From opening, Kangwon Land attracted enormous interest. Korean citizens, previously restricted to illegal gambling or limited legal options like lotteries and sports betting, flocked to the facility. Long lines and waiting times became common, with visitors sometimes waiting hours for entry.

The casino's early success exceeded expectations. Revenue soared as Koreans previously unable to legally gamble in their own country finally had access to casino gaming. However, this success immediately sparked controversy about social costs, including gambling addiction, family disruption, and crime in surrounding communities.

Legal Framework and Monopoly Status

Kangwon Land operates under unique legal provisions that ensure its monopoly on serving Korean citizens. The Special Act on the Assistance to the Development of Abandoned Mine Areas explicitly authorizes one casino for Korean citizens in designated abandoned mine areas.

This monopoly has been repeatedly reaffirmed. The law was initially enacted for a 10-year period ending in 2009, then renewed in 2009 for another 10 years through 2019. In 2021, the law was renewed again, extending Kangwon Land's exclusive authorization for 20 years from 2025 through 2045.

The monopoly's renewal demonstrates political support for maintaining Kangwon Land's unique status despite controversies. While some experts argue that the monopoly should end and additional casinos should be permitted, national authorities have consistently affirmed Kangwon Land's exclusive rights.

Operations and Financial Performance

Kangwon Land has become a financial powerhouse within South Korea's gambling sector. In 2024, the property generated ₩1.36 trillion (approximately $950 million USD) in gross gaming revenue, representing 42.3 percent of the entire South Korean casino sector's revenue despite being just one facility among numerous foreigner-only casinos.

This extraordinary financial performance reflects both the facility's monopoly status and the substantial demand among Korean citizens for legal gambling access. While foreigners can gamble at numerous casinos throughout South Korea, only Kangwon Land serves Korean citizens, concentrating all domestic demand at a single location.

The casino's revenue significantly exceeds that of individual foreigner-only casinos, even those in prime locations like Seoul and Busan. This revenue dominance underscores the scale of domestic gambling demand and the economic value of Kangwon Land's exclusive authorization.

Gaming Operations

Kangwon Land offers comprehensive casino gaming including table games such as blackjack, baccarat, roulette, and poker, plus extensive slot machine operations and electronic gaming machines. In recent regulatory developments, Kangwon Land received permission in 2025 to increase minimum bets on blackjack and poker, targeting higher-roller customers.

The casino operates 24 hours daily, though entry restrictions limit how frequently individuals can visit. The facility maintains sophisticated surveillance and security systems, both for operational security and to monitor for problem gambling behaviors.

Expansion Plans: Doubling Capacity

In 2024, Kangwon Land unveiled a massive $1.9 billion expansion and renovation project designed to triple casino space. This ambitious development plan reflects confidence in continued demand and the facility's secure monopoly status.

Construction began in March 2025 on a second casino building, scheduled for completion by December 2027. The new facility will feature 50 gaming tables, 250 slot machines, and food and beverage facilities. This expansion will significantly increase capacity, potentially reducing wait times and accommodating more visitors.

Additionally, Kangwon Land is trialling a "foreigner-only casino" zone as part of its expansion efforts. This development represents an interesting evolution, as Kangwon Land historically served exclusively Korean citizens while other casinos served foreigners. The addition of foreigner-only gaming areas suggests Kangwon Land is seeking to capture both market segments.

The expansion's scale demonstrates that the government and Kangwon Land management anticipate continued strong demand through at least 2045, when the current monopoly authorization expires. The investment also signals no expectation of gambling law liberalization that would permit competing casinos for Korean citizens.

Entry Restrictions and Access Controls

Unlike commercial casinos in many countries, Kangwon Land imposes strict entry restrictions designed to limit gambling addiction and excessive use. These restrictions reflect the government's attempt to balance permitting legal gambling while mitigating social harms.

Entry Limits

Visitors face limits on how frequently they can enter the casino per month. While specific limits have varied over time as policy adjustments occur, the principle remains constant: preventing unlimited access that could facilitate addiction.

These entry limits distinguish Kangwon Land from typical commercial casinos, which generally welcome frequent visitors. The restrictions acknowledge that unlimited access to gambling for Korean citizens, given their demonstrated vulnerability to gambling addiction, would create unacceptable social costs.

Identification and Verification

All visitors must present identification proving Korean citizenship. The casino maintains comprehensive records of visits, enabling enforcement of entry limits and supporting research on gambling behaviors.

The identification requirements prevent foreign visitors from accessing the locals-only gaming areas, maintaining the legal distinction between Kangwon Land and foreigner-only casinos. Foreigners attempting to gamble at Kangwon Land face ejection and potential legal consequences.

Self-Exclusion Programs

Kangwon Land operates mandatory self-exclusion programs allowing individuals to voluntarily ban themselves from the casino. Family members can also request exclusion of relatives showing signs of gambling problems.

These programs reflect responsible gambling obligations imposed by Korean gambling regulations. The casino must maintain self-exclusion lists and refuse entry to self-excluded individuals, with violations potentially resulting in regulatory sanctions.

Social Impact and Controversies

Kangwon Land's social impact has generated ongoing controversy since its opening. While the casino achieved its economic development goals, creating jobs and generating revenue, it also produced significant social costs.

Gambling Addiction Concerns

Areas surrounding Kangwon Land have experienced elevated rates of gambling addiction. The availability of legal casino gambling, previously unavailable to Korean citizens anywhere in the country, predictably led some visitors to develop gambling problems.

Research by the Korean Center on Gambling Problems indicates that Koreans are two to three times more likely to suffer from gambling addiction compared to other nationalities. This vulnerability, combined with Kangwon Land's accessibility (relative to illegal or offshore options), creates conditions conducive to addiction development.

Critics argue that Kangwon Land's existence contradicts the government's stated concerns about gambling's social harms. If gambling creates such severe problems that it must be prohibited throughout the country, the reasoning goes, why permit an exception regardless of economic benefits?

Impact on Surrounding Communities

Communities near Kangwon Land have experienced both benefits and costs. Economic benefits include job creation, with Kangwon Land employing thousands of workers, and increased tourism supporting hotels, restaurants, and local businesses.

However, social costs have emerged including increased crime rates, family disruptions due to gambling addiction, homelessness among individuals who lost everything gambling, and strain on local social services. These impacts mirror problems observed near casinos worldwide but are particularly pronounced given Kangwon Land's monopoly status concentrating all domestic casino gambling in one location.

Economic Development Success

From a pure economic development perspective, Kangwon Land succeeded in its mission. The facility created thousands of jobs in a region that previously faced devastating unemployment. Tax revenue supports local and regional government budgets. Tourism infrastructure developed to serve casino visitors benefits the broader region.

The abandoned mine area that motivated Kangwon Land's creation has been economically transformed, no longer dependent on defunct coal mining but instead centered on tourism and gambling. This transformation achieved the Special Act's fundamental purpose.

However, whether economic benefits justify social costs remains contentious. The debate reflects broader philosophical questions about government's role in balancing economic development, individual freedom, and social protection.

Why Only One Casino for Koreans?

The obvious question arises: if Kangwon Land proves financially successful, why doesn't South Korea authorize additional casinos for Korean citizens?

Several factors explain the continued restriction to one facility. First, concern about gambling proliferation drives restrictive policy. Authorizing additional casinos would expand gambling access, potentially increasing addiction rates and social problems. The government's gambling policy prioritizes limiting access over maximizing revenue.

Second, Kangwon Land's original justification was regional economic development for abandoned mine areas. This specific rationale doesn't apply to other regions, making it difficult to justify additional casinos on the same grounds.

Third, powerful opposition exists from conservative and religious groups that view gambling as morally harmful. Expanding legal gambling faces substantial political resistance.

Fourth, Kangwon Land's monopoly creates a valuable asset generating substantial revenue. Authorizing competitors would dilute this value, potentially reducing proceeds available for regional development.

As experts have noted, while the case grows for ending Kangwon Land's exclusive rights given changing circumstances, political will for such reform remains absent. The status quo persists due to institutional inertia and the difficulty of building consensus for change.

Comparison with Foreigner-Only Casinos

South Korea operates numerous foreigner-only casinos in Seoul, Busan, Jeju Island, and other locations. These facilities exclusively serve foreign tourists, with Korean citizens and residents prohibited from gambling there.

The contrast between Kangwon Land and foreigner-only casinos highlights the two-tier system. Foreigners enjoy convenient access to multiple casinos in major cities, while Korean citizens must travel to remote Gangwon Province and face entry restrictions at the one casino they can access.

This disparity reflects the government's underlying philosophy: capturing gambling tourism revenue while protecting Korean citizens from gambling's harms. The contradiction inherent in this approach, permitting what the government views as harmful for foreigners while restricting it for citizens, generates ongoing criticism.

Foreigner-only casinos face different economic dynamics than Kangwon Land. They compete with each other and with foreign casinos in Macau, Singapore, and elsewhere for tourist customers. Kangwon Land faces no competition for domestic customers, explaining its extraordinary revenue despite remote location.

The Future Through 2045

Kangwon Land's monopoly status is secure through 2045 following the 2021 law renewal. This extended authorization provides certainty justifying the major expansion investments currently underway.

What happens after 2045 remains uncertain. Possible scenarios include renewal of Kangwon Land's monopoly for another extended period, authorization of additional casinos for Korean citizens, comprehensive gambling law reform liberalizing access, or in the unlikely scenario, termination of the locals-casino exception.

Given institutional inertia and political realities, continuation of Kangwon Land's monopoly seems most probable. The facility has become embedded in South Korea's gambling landscape and regional economy, making dramatic change difficult.

However, pressures for reform may intensify. The proliferation of offshore online gambling demonstrates that prohibition cannot eliminate demand. Some analysts argue that additional legal, regulated casinos would be preferable to the current situation where many Koreans gamble illegally online instead.

International Context

Kangwon Land's model of a single government-owned casino for locals is unusual internationally. Most jurisdictions either prohibit gambling entirely or permit commercial casino industries subject to regulation.

Singapore offers perhaps the closest comparison, though even Singapore authorized two integrated resorts rather than a single facility. Singapore's approach includes entry fees for citizens and permanent residents, creating a financial barrier while permitting access. South Korea's approach at Kangwon Land uses entry frequency limits and remote location as barriers instead of entry fees.

The monopoly model concentrates all problems at one location, facilitating study and intervention but also creating concentrated social costs. A more distributed casino industry might spread impacts more broadly but would also expand access potentially increasing total problems.

Conclusion: Exception That Proves the Rule

Kangwon Land stands as the exception that proves the rule of South Korean gambling prohibition. Its very existence as the sole legal casino for Korean citizens underscores how comprehensive restrictions are everywhere else.

The casino's history reflects evolving tensions between economic development goals, social protection concerns, and individual freedom. Its continued operation demonstrates that complete prohibition proved politically unsustainable, yet its monopoly status shows that liberalization remains unacceptable to policymakers.

Understanding Kangwon Land is essential for understanding South Korean gambling policy overall. The facility embodies the contradictions and compromises that characterize the government's approach to gambling regulation.

For those struggling with gambling problems, whether related to Kangwon Land or other gambling activities, support resources are available through the Korean Center on Gambling Problems and other organizations.

Related Information

• South Korean Gambling Laws Explained - Legal framework authorizing Kangwon Land
• Offshore Casinos and Legal Risks - Why some Koreans gamble illegally instead
• Penalties, Arrests, and Government Crackdowns - Enforcement against illegal alternatives
• Risks, Addiction, and Help Resources - Support for gambling problems