Legal Gambling in South Korea
For many years, Korean citizens could only legally participate in the lottoilbo (lottery) and engage in horse racing, boat racing or bicycle racing. South Korea became a UN member in 1991. The police began to be less strict about many gambling laws when they realized that tourism was a major sector.
1997 saw the birth of Sports Toto in Korea, which currently provides fixed odds and running odds bets on popular Korean sports.
Casinos Given Green Light
The year 2000 marks a significant development in South Korea’s history as casinos were legalized. There are currently eight casinos on Cheju-do (Jeju-do) Island, three in Seoul, three in Kyongju, two in Incheon and Busan each. Additionally, Jeongseongun, Pusan, Pyeong Chang gun and Sokch’o City each have one casino.
Varieties of games found in Korean casinos consist of slots, video poker, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, daisai (tai sai), 7 Luck 21, 3-card poker, Caribbean stud poker, big wheel, Texas Hold’em poker and casino war.
Push to Relax Gambling Laws
There was a big push in 2011 to ease gambling laws and make Korean gambling more accessible. This includes Mr. Jung Byung-Guk, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport who said that he would work for abolition of the old-fashioned Korean gambling statues so that all Koreans can enter foreigner-only casinos in Korea.
PokerStars ran a high stakes poker tournament in South Korea the following year. APPT Seoul, which was held by Pokerstars the following year, had 268 players who paid the entry fee of KRW 3,000,000 each. Andrew Kim won at last and took home KRW 717,489,000 as first-place prize money.
Korea has not changed its gambling laws for years, but this has seen a lot of changes. The police work hard to stop (and punish anyone involved with) match fixing (cheating) and mafia-run betting operations. To ensure your safety, we advise you to utilize any of our preferred Korean betting websites.