Gambling in South Korea

The gambling scene

South Korea's state-sanctioned gambling takes in casinos, horse racing, cycle racing (keirung), motorboat racing (jeonggyeong), lotteries, sports promotion voting tickets and even bullfighting 6. Everything outside that list, from internet gambling to hwatu card games played for money in a private setting, sits on the illegal side 7.

The practical picture for a visitor is straightforward. You can walk into any of the 16 foreigner-only casinos with your passport, buy lottery tickets at retail outlets, bet on racing at the tracks, and buy Sports Toto and Proto products at authorized outlets. For Korean citizens the picture is much narrower: one casino, the state lottery, the racing sports and the sports betting products, and nothing online except the official lottery site 1.

One point that surprises many visitors: gambling is generally a crime for Korean nationals even when they travel abroad, so the rules follow citizens rather than the venue 8. Foreign visitors and residents are not subject to that rule.

For the full background, see gambling laws in South Korea, the gambling age rules and the history of gambling in South Korea.

Casinos and resorts

South Korea has 17 licensed casinos, and 16 of them are legally reserved for foreign passport holders 1. The exception is Kangwon Land, at the High1 Resort in the mountains of Gangwon Province, which is the largest casino in the country and the only one where citizens can play 9. It spreads 12 poker tables alongside its other games 10.

The biggest names for visitors:

Jeju Island has its own cluster of foreigner-only casinos, with 200 or more slot machines across the island and a baccarat-centered, Chinese-language style of operation. The named venues include Dream Tower (the largest), Lotte, Oriental, Sun and Plaza 1. The Shilla Hotel casino offers roulette, blackjack, baccarat and slots in a traditional Western European style 14; and the Oriental Hotel casino sits on the Tapdong waterfront, 15 minutes from the airport 16.

Entry rules are consistent: foreigner-only venues check your passport at the door for both age and nationality, and the minimum age is 19 13. Operators define their games as table games, machine games (slot machines and video games) and electronic table games 17. For what is actually on the floor, see casino games in South Korea and slot machines and game rooms.

The lottery

The South Korea lottery is run by Donghaeng Lottery and comes in four forms: online lottery, printed instant lottery, printed/electronic combined draw lottery, and electronic lottery in both draw and instant versions 2. You buy online and printed tickets at retail outlets (there is an outlet finder on dhlottery.co.kr), and electronic lottery through the official sales site 2.

Draws are a television event. The online lottery draw is broadcast on MBC around Saturday 20:45, and the printed/electronic combined draw around Thursday 19:05, with results also posted on the official website 2.

Claiming depends on the size of the win. Electronic lottery prizes of KRW 50,000 or less go straight into your deposit account; prizes over KRW 50,000 and under KRW 10,000,000 are deposited after identity verification; prizes of KRW 10,000,000 or more require a visit to Donghaeng Lottery in person to verify identity before withdrawal 2.

The individual games each have their own page: Lotto 6/45, Pension Lottery 720+, Speetto instant lottery, electronic lottery games, Powerball and Speed Kino.

Sports betting and racing

Legal sports betting in South Korea runs through the state products: Sports Toto and Proto. The legal limit is KRW 100,000 per person, and all betting outside the state system is illegal 3.

The main products:

• Soccer Toto: the Seung-mu-pae game asks you to pick the result of 14 matches, with 50% of the refund pool to first prize (odds 1/4,782,969), 20% to second, 10% to third and 20% to fourth (1/1,643) 18. The Match game is score-based, splitting final scores into six goal bands, with first prize at 1/441 19. The Special game offers Double and Triple types at odds up to 1/46,656 20.
• Basketball Toto: the Match game predicts final score bands (69 or fewer up to 110 or more, overtime included) at 1/1,296 21; the Special and Special N games cover NBA score bands with Double and Triple types 2223.
• Baseball Toto: the Special game splits scores into six categories from 0-1 up to 10+, with Double odds of 1/1,296 and Triple odds of 1/46,656 24.
• Proto: fixed-odds betting on individual matches, with odds applied to two decimal places on single-match purchases 25.

Winnings are rounded up to the nearest 10 won, and anything below the KRW 100 unit stake is paid as KRW 100 22. Tickets bought on the betman site are refunded to a deposit account or refund bank account 19.

Racing is the other half of the scene. Horse racing runs at the LetsRun Parks: 16 races on Friday and 17 on Saturday and Sunday, first post 11:00 on Friday and 10:35 on Saturday and Sunday, and last race 18:00 4. Betting is pari-mutuel with a KRW 100 unit, in Win, Place, Quinella and Exacta forms, with an 18% government duty deducted from turnover and no bookmakers 26. Race programs include a speed index (higher than 100 means faster) and track-pace ratings 4.

Motorboat racing (KBOAT) is a spectacle in itself: boats do a full-speed demonstration cruise of up to two laps before the race, then a low-speed waiting cruise about 60 seconds before the start, with the six boats hitting the start line 15 seconds out and sprinting from about 8 seconds 27. Cycle racing completes the three public racing sports. For the venues, see the Korea Racing Authority, Gwangmyeong Speedom, Busan SPO1 and Misari motorboat racing park pages.

Poker

Live poker in South Korea is concentrated in two places: the poker rooms at Paradise City in Incheon and Paradise Casino Walkerhill in Seoul, both run by Geutebruck Korea 28. Kangwon Land also spreads 12 poker tables 10.

The Asian Poker Tour has been hosting events in Incheon for the past two years and added Seoul, with its second Seoul installment concluding in early June 28. See poker in South Korea for the room-by-room picture and poker tournaments for the schedule.

Online poker is a gray area: online gambling generally is prohibited, but there are no specific laws against playing online poker, and major sites do serve Korean players, though PokerStars, for instance, does not support Korean Won or local bank transfer 8.

Local and traditional games

The games Koreans actually play split into two groups. Games of chance include the lottery, slot machines, roulette, video poker and baccarat. Games mixing chance and skill include horse racing, cycle racing, motorboat racing, poker and blackjack 7.

The card game at the heart of Korean gambling culture is Go-Stop, played with hwatu (flower cards). Hwatu played for money outside a licensed setting is treated as illegal gambling, which is why the game lives on in family settings and casino-adjacent culture rather than in clubs 7.

Online

Online gambling in South Korea is prohibited, and the ban is strictly enforced; players caught gambling online can face penalties 5. There is no licensing process for online casinos, so no operator is licensed in the country 29.

Despite that, more than 40 offshore casino sites target Korean players, offering live blackjack, roulette, baccarat, poker, game shows and live bingo 29. Bitcoin is the preferred payment method among players from South Korea, and PayPal is accepted at most offshore casinos serving the country 5. The practical risk is real: illegal sports betting sites sometimes simply do not pay winnings 30, and winnings from offshore platforms count as illegal earnings under Korean law even when the site is based overseas 3. See online betting sites and gambling scams and illegal sites before you consider any of them.

Money and payments

Inside legal venues, cash is king and currency exchange is on hand: Walkerhill, for example, runs its own exchange desk 13. Offshore sites serving Korean players accept bank transfers, e-wallets and crypto, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether and Dogecoin 29.

On the tax side, racing betting already carries an 18% government duty on turnover before payouts 26, and the treatment of winnings depends on whether the play was legal. See gambling payments in South Korea and tax on gambling winnings for the details.

Who can play

The rules differ sharply depending on who you are, so here is the short version.

Citizens aged 19 or over can play only at Kangwon Land casino, plus the state lottery and racing; all other casinos bar them. Online, citizens may only buy state lottery tickets through the official Donghaeng Lottery site; all other online gambling, including offshore sites, is illegal. Gambling abroad is a crime for citizens even where it is legal locally, though one-off small bets during a trip are generally not punished.

Foreign residents aged 19 or over can play at the 16 foreigner-only casinos and Kangwon Land by showing a passport or alien registration card. Online gambling is prohibited for residents, and winnings from offshore sites count as illegal earnings even if the site is overseas. Whether Korean law restricts foreign residents playing in casinos in other countries is not settled in the facts.

Visitors aged 19 or over can play at the 16 foreigner-only casinos and Kangwon Land, showing a passport at the door. Online gambling is prohibited in South Korea with no visitor exception, even though some offshore sites accept Korean players.

The underlying rule for operators is that casinos may not admit Korean nationals, with a narrow exception for overseas emigrants under the Overseas Emigration Act; travel agency staff and visitors may enter with a badge but must not be allowed to play 17.

Visiting and living there

For a visitor, the practical entry points are the foreigner-only casinos, and the experience is designed for you: passport checks at the door, currency exchange on site, and 24-hour opening at most venues 1314. Smart casual dress is the norm at the Seoul and Busan properties, and the bigger resorts are as much about the hotel, dining and shows as the gaming floor.

If you are living in Korea long term, the same venues stay open to you with your alien registration card, and the lottery, racing and Sports Toto products are all available at retail outlets. The one thing that does not change is the online ban, which applies to residents as much as to citizens 5.

For the full picture, see gambling in South Korea as a visitor and, if you are a Korean national thinking about a casino trip overseas, gambling trips abroad from South Korea.

Getting help

Gambling addiction counseling in South Korea is delivered mainly through in-person visits and telephone counseling, with regional Gamblers Anonymous (GA) self-help groups as the peer option 7. The Korea Racing Authority and the racing and cycling operators run their own counseling clinics for customers of those sports 6.

There is also a family route into exclusion: a casino operator must bar entry to a person whose spouse or direct blood relative has requested an entry prohibition in writing on grounds of gambling addiction, provided the request comes with documents verifying the family relationship 31.

See gambling help in South Korea and self-exclusion and entry limits for contacts and the process.