Self-bans common for foreigners barred at S.Korea casinos
South Korea’s 17 foreigner-only casinos collectively had 1,870 foreign players registered as excluded as of August 2024, with those ‘self-excluded’ being the largest-single category, accounting for 492 individuals, or 26.3 percent of the total.
The information is via the office of National Assembly member Min Hyung-bae, in a reply to GGRAsia. The original source had been the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as part of a National Assembly audit on the casino industry, said the legislator’s office.
Mr Min stated in a recent National Assembly discussion of the audit, that a creeping increase in the number of all forms of self-exclusion – up by 637 year-on-year in 2021; up by 693 in 2022; and up by 761 in 2023 – indicated players’ recognition of “gambling addiction”.
He urged the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the National Gambling Control Commission to act swiftly, regarding countermeasures on gambling addiction.
Mr Min’s office clarified to GGRAsia it did not have data regarding any possible exclusions at South Korea’s only casino for locals, within the Kangwon Land resort. GGRAsia approached that resort’s operator, Kangwon Land Inc, asking for information on if – or how many – locals were excluded, but it said the information was not publicly disclosed.
Among foreign players barred at foreigner-only casinos – aside from the 492 that were self-excluded – there were: 431 individuals with ‘venue order violations’ (23.0 percent); 148 individuals as ‘requested by family members’ (7.9 percent); 95 due to ‘theft’ (5.1 percent); and 57 for ‘alcohol disorders’ (3.0 percent).
There were additionally excluded: 30 people for ‘violence’ (1.6 percent); eight for ‘identity fraud’ (0.4 percent); seven for ‘property damage’ (0.4 percent), and 602 individuals categorised as ‘other’ causes (32.2 percent), as of August.
According to the data via the lawmaker’s office, Paradise Co Ltd, which runs the Paradise Walkerhill venue in the capital Seoul, Paradise City at Incheon, Paradise Busan in that southern port city, and Paradise Grand Jeju on the island of Jeju, had 971 foreign players barred as of August.
Among Paradise Co’s 971 exclusions, ‘venue order violation’ was the largest single category of exclusion, accounting for 343 players (35.3 percent of its cases); with ‘self-exclusion’ being the second commonest, with 332 players (34.2 percent of its cases).
Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), which runs the Gangnam COEX and Dragon City venues in Seoul under the Seven Luck brand, as well as the Busan Lotte venue, had a total of 353 excluded people as of August. Among them were 20 individuals (5.7 percent of its total) under ‘venue order violations’. A further 65 individuals (18.4 percent of its cases) were counted as ‘self-exclusions’.
Jeju Dream Tower casino, promoted by Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd, had 235 excluded players, though reasons were not specified in the data. The casino within Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort at Incheon, had 104 excluded players overall.
A spokeswoman for Paradise Co told GGRAsia that its exclusion period ranges from ‘one week’ to ‘indefinite’. She said the company does not publicly disclose the criteria it uses for deciding on the length of exclusion.
An official at GKL told GGRAsia that its criteria for length of exclusion are applied uniformly across its three properties, but it also does not publicly disclose them.
An official from Jeju Self-Governing Provincial Government’s Casino Policy Division told GGRAsia that there is no national standard for casino exclusions, so the rule varies by property and might change daily. This was on the basis that – in the case of self-exclusion – a player might opt to lift their own ban in the course of 24 hours.
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