Gambling Age in South Korea

The legal gambling age in South Korea: 19 for most games

If you are planning a night at a casino, a lottery ticket purchase or a Sports Toto bet in South Korea, the number you need to remember is 19. That single age covers almost every legal form of gambling in the country, from the blackjack tables at Paradise Casino Walkerhill to a Lotto 6/45 ticket from a convenience store.

The legal forms of gambling in South Korea are casinos, horse racing, cycle racing, motorboat racing, the lottery, sports promotion voting tickets (Sports Toto) and bullfighting⁸. Everything else, including internet gambling, hwatu flower cards, poker and adult arcades, sits outside the legal list⁸. Minors are barred from all of it: under the Youth Protection Act and the gaming industry laws, gambling participation by young people is illegal across the board⁹.

So there is no form of legal gambling in South Korea open to someone under 19. The only place the number moves is electronic betting on horse racing, where the registration age is 21, which we cover below.

One point worth knowing before we go further: the age is written as 만 19세 in Korean, and that 만 matters. It means 19 full years of age, counted from your birthday, not the traditional Korean age system where everyone turns a year older on January 1. We explain the difference in a later section.

Lottery: 19, counted by calendar year

The national lottery, run by Donghaeng Lottery, applies the same minimum age as the rest of the country's legal gambling. Under the Lottery and Lottery Fund Act, anyone under that age may not buy lottery tickets³. The same rule appears on the official game pages: under-age buyers cannot purchase tickets under the Act¹⁰, and Donghaeng's own guidance repeats it¹¹.

There is a wrinkle in how the lottery counts that age. Official guidance states that young people as defined in the Youth Protection Act cannot buy lottery tickets, and that purchase becomes possible from January 1 of the year in which a person turns 19⁴. In other words, the lottery uses the calendar-year method: if your 19th birthday falls any time during a given year, you can buy tickets from January 1 of that year, even if the birthday itself has not arrived yet.

That makes the lottery slightly more generous than the casinos, which check your actual date of birth. A person who turns 19 in, say, November could legally buy a Lotto 6/45 ticket in January of that year but would still be turned away from a casino until the birthday itself. If you are in that window, the difference is worth knowing.

The rule covers every lottery product, from Lotto 6/45 and Pension Lottery 720 to the Speetto instant scratchcards sold at kiosks, since the age limit in the Act applies to lottery purchase generally³. You can read more about the games themselves on our pages about the South Korea lottery and electronic lottery games.

Casinos: 19 and over (만 19세) at every venue

Every casino in South Korea applies the age limit described above, written as 만 19세 이상. The rule is set out in the official regulations for casino operators, which state that a casino business may not admit anyone below that age¹². Individual venues repeat it on their own pages:

South Korea has 17 licensed casinos in total¹. They range from small hotel casinos on Jeju to large resorts like Paradise City in Incheon, but the age rule does not vary between them. Whether you are walking into a venue in Seoul, Busan or Jeju, the floor is 19-and-over, full stop.

What the check means in practice:

• The age is counted as 만 19세, meaning 19 full years from your date of birth. A day before your 19th birthday, you do not get in.
• The check is done at the door with an identity document, and at foreigner-only casinos that document is your passport¹⁸.
• Dress is neat attire at all casinos; the age limit and the dress code are the two things staff check before you reach the tables¹.

Kangwon Land, the one casino open to Korean citizens, applies the same 19-and-over rule to everyone¹. Its own guidance describes the check as being based on your birthday at the time of entry, so bring a document that shows your date of birth².

If you want to compare venues, our pages on casinos in South Korea, casinos in Jeju and casinos in Busan list what each one offers.

Sports Toto: 19 to play and to claim prizes

Sports Toto, the sports promotion betting system covering games like Soccer Toto, Baseball Toto and Basketball Toto, applies the same minimum age as the rest of the country's legal gambling. The official guidance is blunt: minors under that age are not allowed to participate in the games or to take prizes⁵.

That second part matters more than it looks. It is not only about buying the ticket. Sports Toto's own terms prohibit sales to minors and set a purchase limit per draw per person²⁰, and research on the system notes that the sports lottery prohibits both purchase and receipt of tickets by anyone below the minimum age²¹. So a minor cannot buy a ticket for an adult, and a minor cannot be handed a ticket either. If a winning ticket ends up in the hands of someone under the limit, the prize does not get paid.

The same principle appears elsewhere in Korean betting. The bon ku ne ticket, a prize-drawing game, states that tickets may not be sold to people younger than 18 and that a winner who turns out to be the minor will not receive the prize²². The message is consistent across Korean betting products: the age limit attaches to the ticket, not just the purchase.

For the games themselves and how the betting works, see our page on Sports Toto Korea.

Horse racing: 19 at the track, 21 online

Horse racing betting has two age limits, and the difference catches people out. The Korea Racing Authority Act states that the authority shall not sell betting tickets to minors⁶. At the track, at LetsRun Park branches in Seoul, Busan-Gyeongnam and Jeju, that means the standard 19-and-over rule applies to buying a betting ticket in person.

But for electronic betting tickets, the Act sets a higher bar: persons under 21 are treated as minors for those purposes⁶. A separate provision of the same Act lists a person under 21 years of age as barred from registering to purchase electronic betting tickets⁶. So if you want to bet on the races through the electronic system rather than at a betting window, you need to be 21.

In practice: an 19-year-old can walk into a racecourse and buy a betting ticket, but cannot register for the electronic betting service. If you are between 19 and 21 and want to bet on horse racing in South Korea, plan on doing it at the track.

Korean age counting: why '19' can differ from your birthday

Korea has historically used more than one way of counting age, and gambling venues use the strictest one. When a casino or lottery sign says 만 19세, the 만 means "full" or "completed" years. You qualify only when 19 full years have passed since the date you were born. This is the international way of counting age, and it is what staff check against your passport or ID.

This is different from the traditional Korean age system, in which a person was considered one year old at birth and gained a year every January 1. Under that old system, someone could be "19" in Korean age while being 17 or 18 by birthday. Gambling rules do not use that system. The 만 in 만 19세 is there precisely to remove the ambiguity.

The lottery adds its own twist, as we noted earlier: official guidance says purchase is possible from January 1 of the year a person turns 19⁴. That calendar-year method is more generous than the birthday method the casinos use. So the practical rule of thumb is:

• Casinos and Sports Toto: 19 full years old, checked by birthday.
• Lottery: the calendar year you turn 19, from January 1.

If your 19th birthday is late in the year and you want to gamble earlier in that year, the lottery counter is the one place you can do it legally.

Foreigners-only rule at most casinos and the passport check

Here is the thing that surprises many visitors: 16 of South Korea's 17 casinos are legally reserved exclusively for foreign passport holders and expatriates⁷. Only Kangwon Land admits Korean citizens⁷. The foreigner-only venues require a passport, and Koreans are not admitted¹. Seven Luck's Busan Lotte branch spells it out: it is a foreigners-only casino, Koreans are barred from entry, a passport is required at the door for the age and nationality check, and metal detectors are installed for safety¹⁶.

The passport check serves both purposes at once: it proves your age and it proves your nationality. Seven Luck's Seoul Dragon City branch states that passports are required to verify the age and nationality of patrons¹⁸, and its Chinese-language page repeats that visitors must meet the minimum age and must bring a passport to confirm age and nationality¹⁹.

At the Paradise casinos (Walkerhill in Seoul, City in Incheon and Busan), the document rules are set out in detail. For first-time foreign customers: a passport is mandatory, plus a domestic residence report card for foreign-national Koreans or an alien registration card, and a certificate of alien registration if needed²³. For first-time emigrant customers: a passport, with verification of recent stamps if necessary, plus a permanent resident card of any form and a copy of the resident registration with the emigration declaration²³.

Two further points from Paradise's guidance:

• Admission may be rejected if your period of stay in Korea is not confirmed²³.
• Only identification documents issued within 7 days prior to admission are accepted, which applies to supporting documents like registration certificates, not your passport itself²³.

Paradise Casino Walkerhill sits in the Grand Walkerhill Hotel overlooking the Han River in Seoul²⁵ and is a foreigner-only casino²⁶. It also has a historical note attached: Walkerhill was South Korea's first casino¹. Paradise City in Incheon is similar: foreigners only, 만 19세 and over, open to foreigners and holders of overseas permanent residence permits¹⁷.

So for visitors, the practical checklist is simple: meet the minimum age described above, carry your passport, and make sure your stay status in Korea is in order. For more on individual venues, see our pages on Seven Luck Casino and Inspire Casino and Resort in Incheon.

South Korean nationals: the exceptions that let them enter

For Korean citizens, the picture is very different. Gambling is illegal for Korean citizens under the Criminal Act, outside limited exceptions²⁷. The main exception is Kangwon Land, located in a remote mountainous region, where citizens are legally permitted to gamble⁷. It is the only casino in the country where a Korean national can walk in, and the age limit there is the same 만 19세 as everywhere else¹.

The other legal outlets for citizens are the ones covered earlier on this page: the lottery from the calendar year they turn 19⁴, Sports Toto at 19⁵, and the racing products, with the 21-and-over rule for electronic betting registration⁶. Cycle racing and motorboat racing betting follow the same pattern of licensed, age-restricted outlets⁸.

Korean citizens cannot enter the 16 foreigner-only casinos even as spectators or guests of a foreign visitor; the nationality check at the door applies to everyone¹. And the Criminal Act follows citizens abroad in practice, which is why our page on gambling trips abroad from South Korea is worth reading if you hold Korean nationality.

Online gambling: no legal age, because it is not legal

The question "what is the online gambling age in South Korea?" has no answer, because there is no legal online gambling in South Korea to set an age for. Online gambling in the country is prohibited, even though some forms of land-based gambling are legal²⁸. The same source notes the contrast directly: land-based gambling is not prohibited as such, but is limited to the licensed outlets, while online gambling is prohibited outright²⁸.

This is why you will not find a Korean-licensed online casino or betting site with a "19+" badge. The legal products described on this page, casinos, lottery, Sports Toto and racing, all exist in physical form only. Internet gambling, poker and adult arcades appear on the official list of illegal gambling forms⁸.

For foreign visitors used to betting online at home, the practical takeaway is this: while you are in South Korea, the legal gambling on offer is what you can walk to. Our page on online gambling in South Korea covers the situation in more detail, and our overview of gambling in South Korea puts all the legal options in one place.