Dual Nationals and Foreigner-Only Casinos

Resident or visitor: which rules apply to you

Across Asia, casinos that restrict locals do not ask about your life story. They look at the document in your hand. If you hold two passports, the one you present at the door is usually the one that decides whether you walk in, and the same logic runs through almost every foreigner-only scheme on the continent.

The countries on this page handle that document in three broad ways:

• Passport decides: Korea's 16 foreigners-only casinos look at nationality through the passport. Foreign passport, you play; Korean identity, you do not¹.
• Status decides: Singapore follows the person, not the paper. A citizen or permanent resident owes the entry levy whatever passport they carry⁶.
• Income and residency decide: the Philippines mixes nationality with residency and certified income for some parts of the floor⁷.

Singapore is the clearest example of a rule that follows status rather than paperwork. A casino operator there must not allow any Singapore citizen or permanent resident onto the casino floor unless that person has paid the entry levy, S$150 for every consecutive 24 hours under the current text of the Casino Control Act⁶. A dual citizen who enters on a foreign passport is still a citizen, so the levy rule follows the person, not the document. Our page on permanent residents and gambling in Asia covers that side of the line.

The Philippines works the other way, at least in part. PAGCOR's charter opens its casinos to tourists and foreigners who are not residents of the Philippines, and to residents with a gross income for the previous year of at least P50,000 certified by the Bureau of Internal Revenue⁷. The foreign exchange gaming pits go further: only persons with foreign passports, or certificates of identity issued to Hong Kong patrons, may play⁸. So in Manila a local resident with a foreign passport may enter the main casino but not the foreigner-only pit.

South Korea and Vietnam, the two countries this page focuses on, sit between these models. Korea excludes nationals from almost every casino but carves out exceptions for overseas emigrants; Vietnam excludes locals from almost every casino but runs pilots that admit qualifying citizens. If you want the broader picture of which country's law follows you, see which country's gambling law applies to you.

South Korea: 17 casinos, 16 of them foreigners-only

South Korea licenses 17 casinos, and 16 of them are foreigners-only¹. The split has been stable for years: 16 casinos compete for inbound foreign players while Kangwon Land, under its own special legislation, is the single venue allowed to serve Koreans⁹.

The rule at the door of the 16 is blunt. Casino operators may not admit Korean nationals, with one written exception: overseas emigrants as defined by the Overseas Emigration Act¹⁰. Travel agency staff and visitors on business may enter with a visitor badge, but they must not be allowed to play¹⁰. In practice the check is a passport: the foreigner-only casinos require one, and Koreans are turned away¹.

Individual venues state it plainly. Paradise City in Incheon is foreign nationals and overseas permanent residence holders only, with Korean nationals barred from entry¹¹. Paradise Casino Walkerhill in Seoul is a foreigners-only casino for those aged 19 or older, and you must carry a passport so age and nationality can be checked¹². The same wording appears at hotel casinos in Seoul, Busan and Jeju, all of them foreigner-only floors¹.

Here is how the main venues line up:

The regulator has also pushed venues to strengthen nationality screening and the management of customer data, which is worth knowing if you are a dual national: the check at the door is not a formality, and venues keep records¹³. A separate rule for casinos in former closed mining areas allows foreigners-only floors to be operated when needed to attract foreigners, including overseas emigrants under Article 2 of the Overseas Emigration Act, while Korean nationals must not be let in¹⁴.

So the practical answer for a dual Korean-other citizen is this: enter on the foreign passport and you are a foreigner for the evening; enter on anything that identifies you as a Korean national and you are not admitted. For the full country picture, see gambling in South Korea.

Kangwon Land: the one casino Koreans and foreigners enter together

Kangwon Land, in Sabuk-eup, Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, is the exception. It is the only casino in South Korea where Korean residents and foreigners can enter together³, a status created by the special act that permits one casino business allowing access to both domestic nationals and foreigners⁹. The county's own tourism page puts it simply: it is the only casino in Korea granting admission to both Korean and foreign visitors¹⁵.

It is also the country's largest casino, with 200 table games and 1,360 slot machines and video games³. The floor breaks down like this:

Alongside the tables sit 60 to 169 slot machines and well over a thousand video game machines, depending on the count¹⁶. If you have played anywhere else in Korea, this is a different scale of room.

The casino opens from 10:00 to 06:00 the next day, and runs all year without holidays¹⁶. On the floor you will find:

• a Mint Bar
• Restaurant Fanji
• Crystal Lounge
• Themetas Club & Lounge
• a free beverage bar serving tea and soft drinks
• a customer service center opposite the fourth-floor currency exchange³

For a first visit, the practical points are ID, the entry tax and the visit caps, covered next.

The entry tax at Kangwon Land, and who does not pay it

Korean visitors pay an entry tax to get onto the floor. The important part for this page is who does not: the tax is waived for customers holding a foreign passport, and for Korean citizens holding an overseas permanent residence passport under the Overseas Emigration Act as prescribed by presidential decree⁴.

Two conditions come with the waiver:

• You must show the passport, and a driver's license is not accepted for this purpose⁴.
• The entry ticket cannot be paid by credit card, so bring cash or another accepted method¹⁸.

So an overseas Korean with a foreign passport or an overseas permanent residence passport walks in tax-free, while a Korean living in Korea pays.

What ID counts at the door

At Kangwon Land, ID is checked at entry to screen out minors, local residents and persons subject to entry restrictions⁴. For Korean nationals, the resident registration card or driver's license works as ID. A passport alone does not, because it cannot confirm your place of residence; you would need a copy of your resident registration to go with it⁴. Anyone who bought a ticket but cannot show ID is refused entry⁴.

At the 16 foreigners-only casinos, the passport is the document. Walkerhill requires it for the age and nationality check¹², and the general rule for foreigner-only floors is passport required, Koreans not admitted¹. In the Philippines, the foreign exchange gaming pits accept foreign passports or Hong Kong certificates of identity⁸.

For Vietnamese citizens at pilot-scheme casinos, the document set is different again: ID proving you are 21 or older with full civil capacity, plus eligibility documents for the pilot conditions⁵. Foreigners and overseas Vietnamese need a valid passport and lawful entry papers⁵.

Entry limits for repeat visitors

Kangwon Land caps how often you can come. The limits are a maximum of 15 days per month and a maximum of 15 hours per day¹. The casino also refuses entry to anyone who cannot show ID, and intoxicated visitors are barred absolutely under the entry management rules⁴. If you are planning a longer stay in the area, budget your casino days accordingly, because the monthly cap is enforced through the entry system, not left to staff discretion.

Vietnam: pilot schemes let citizens into selected casinos from age 21

Vietnam long ran its casino floors the way Korea still does: foreigners only. That changed with a pilot scheme, and it has kept changing. The government first allowed qualifying Vietnamese citizens into the casino at the Phú Quốc project, and extended that pilot program until December 31, 2024¹⁹. A government resolution then allowed eligible Vietnamese citizens to enter casinos at several projects, and from November 26, 2025 the Phú Quốc arrangement became long-term rather than time-limited²⁰.

The current list of projects where citizens may play looks like this:

Who counts as eligible? A Vietnamese citizen must be 21 or older with full civil capacity under Vietnamese law²², must meet minimum income conditions set by the pilot scheme, must buy an entry ticket under each casino's rules, and must not be subject to a family-requested exclusion order⁵. The income condition is the one that filters most people out, and the documents proving it are checked alongside your ID.

The entry ticket is a levy in all but name. The standard figures are VND 1,000,000 per 24 continuous hours per person, or VND 25,000,000 per month per person².

Foreigners and overseas Vietnamese have a simpler path. Foreigners can enter casinos at 18, while Vietnamese citizens must be 21²⁴. Venues such as Hoiana Resort & Casino and Casino Hoang Gia in Ha Long serve foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with valid passports⁵, and Corona Casino on Phu Quoc allows Vietnamese citizens who meet the pilot criteria to play alongside them²⁴. For the wider picture, see gambling in Vietnam.

Online gambling: illegal for Korean citizens, not allowed for Vietnamese locals

The nationality rules do not stop at the casino door. South Korea prohibits gambling by its nationals under the Criminal Act and related laws, and that reaches beyond the country's borders: a Korean national who joins online or offline gambling in a country where it is legal can still be punished under Korean domestic law²⁵. A Supreme Court ruling put the point squarely: gambling at a foreign casino that does not punish gambling does not lose its illegality for a Korean national²⁶. In short, it is illegal for Korean citizens to participate in any form of online gambling, and people caught have been heavily punished²⁷. This applies to citizens wherever they are, not just residents.

Vietnam is different in shape but similar in outcome. Online gambling for locals is not regulated and locals are not allowed to gamble online²⁹. There is no licensed online product for Vietnamese citizens, in contrast to the land-based pilot casinos described above.

If your situation is unusual

A few profiles come up again and again, and the answers are mostly about documents.

The dual citizen. In Korea, the foreign passport is your ticket to the 16 foreigners-only casinos; the exception for overseas emigrants under the Overseas Emigration Act is written into the rules¹⁰. If you travel on the Korean passport, expect to be treated as a Korean national and directed to Kangwon Land.

The overseas permanent resident. Paradise City states it admits foreign nationals and overseas permanent residence holders only¹¹, and Kangwon Land waives its entry tax for the same group⁴. An overseas Korean with the right passport is, for casino purposes, closer to a foreigner than to a local.

The overseas Vietnamese. Casinos such as Hoiana and Casino Hoang Gia serve foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with valid passports⁵, so a Việt Kiều on a foreign passport plays as a foreigner, at 18 rather than 21²⁴.

The foreign spouse of a citizen. Nothing in the Korean or Vietnamese rules turns on marriage. A foreign spouse enters on the foreign passport like any other foreigner; a citizen spouse remains a citizen, whatever their partner's nationality. The rules that matter are the ones on when an expat counts as a resident for gambling rules, not family ties.

The local resident with a foreign passport. In the Philippines, residency and income can matter as much as nationality⁷, while Korea's foreigner-only floors care only about the passport¹. Check which model your destination uses before you assume the passport is enough.