Tax on Gambling Winnings in South Korea

How gambling winnings are taxed in South Korea

South Korea does not have a dedicated gambling tax. Instead, money you win from gambling falls under "other income" (기타소득) in the Income Tax Act, the same category used for prizes, contest rewards and similar one-off payments. The law lists lottery and prize draw winnings, betting ticket refunds from horse racing, cycle racing, boat racing, bullfighting and sports promotion betting, and slot machine winnings all as other income⁵.

One point that surprises many people: the tax treatment does not depend on whether the gambling itself was legal. The Income Tax Act states that gains from speculative acts are other income "regardless of whether the act is legal or illegal," and courts have confirmed this reading⁵. In practice, this matters most for legal products, because legal operators withhold the tax before paying you. For a first-prize Lotto winner, for example, 33% of the prize is withheld as income tax before the money is handed over⁷.

The practical effect for you is simple: on most legal games, the tax is taken out at the source. You do not file anything extra for a lottery win or a large betting refund. The operator hands you the net amount, and the paperwork is done.

If you are new to gambling in Korea generally, see our overview of gambling in South Korea.

Lottery winnings: withholding rates of 22% and 33%

Lottery winnings above the tax-free threshold are taxed at two flat withholding rates, both taken out before you are paid¹:

The same two bands appear in the official guidance for Donghaeng Lottery products and for Lotto 6/45 specifically, matching the rates in the table above⁹. Press coverage of the lottery confirms the same figures: 22% is deducted from jackpot payouts up to 300 million won, and the higher rate from any amount exceeding it¹¹.

A worked example: say you win a Lotto 6/45 prize of more than KRW 2,000,000 but not more than KRW 300,000,000. The operator withholds 22% before paying you, so you take home the remaining share of the prize. Anything above KRW 300,000,000 is taxed at the higher rate from the table above.

A couple of special cases:

• Winners of the annuity-style Pension Lottery 720+ who take the first prize as an annuity have 22% of the first prize amount withheld⁹.
• For the travel lottery (여행복권), withholding of 22% on prizes worth over KRW 50,000 is borne by the winner personally¹².

For most players, though, the table above is all you need. The tax is automatic, and the number printed on your payout slip is what you keep.

Tax-free threshold: KRW 2,000,000 for lottery winnings

The tax-free threshold for lottery winnings is KRW 2,000,000. Winnings at or below that amount are classified as non-taxable (비과세), while anything above falls into the taxed grades¹. The official player guide draws the line the same way: the grades paying KRW 2,000,000 or less are tax-free, and the grades paying more than that are taxed¹³.

This threshold is recent. Until the end of 2022, tax applied to any lottery win above just KRW 50,000. An amendment to the Income Tax Act raised the taxable threshold from KRW 50,000 to KRW 2,000,000 effective January 1, 2023⁸.

The change also made collecting small prizes easier. Winners receiving up to KRW 2,000,000 no longer need to submit personal information such as their resident registration number; they simply visit a bank, have their identity verified, and receive the money on the spot⁸.

In practice, this means most lottery players never deal with tax at all.

Betting refunds: horse racing, cycling, boat racing and Soccer Toto

Winnings from pari-mutuel and sports betting are called "refunds" (환급금) in Korea, and their tax treatment depends on two things: how much you won per individual bet, and the payout odds.

The rules, as published for motorboat racing and repeated across the Sports Toto products, work like this²:

The same exemption appears in the game rules for every Sports Toto product: no tax if the winning odds are 100x or less and the refund is KRW 2,000,000 or less, or if the refund is KRW 100,000 or less regardless of odds. This wording is identical for Soccer Toto Match and Special, Basketball Toto, Baseball Toto, and the Toto victory-style games¹⁴.

When tax does apply, the operator withholds 20% other income tax plus a resident tax equal to 10% of that amount before paying you the refund². Combined, that is the same overall rate described in the lottery section above.

The legal basis is the same as for lotteries: the Income Tax Act treats refunds received by purchasers of horse race betting tickets, cycle and boat race winning tickets, bullfighting tickets and sports promotion betting tickets as other income⁵.

Two things worth knowing about the betting products themselves:

• Sports Toto refunds 50% of total sales back to winners, so the odds you see already reflect the house take¹⁴.
• Illegal sports gambling sites advertise refund rates of 90 to 95%, some 40 to 45 percentage points higher than Sports Toto, which is one reason they attract players despite the legal risk²⁰. Winnings from them are still treated as taxable income under the Income Tax Act's catch-all rule⁵.

For the games themselves, see our pages on horse racing in South Korea, cycle racing and motorboat racing.

Slot machine winnings at Kangwon Land: the KRW 5,000,000 trigger

Kangwon Land, the only casino in South Korea where citizens can legally gamble, is the one place in the country where slot machine winnings have a documented tax trigger. Historically, tax was imposed on slot machine game winnings of KRW 5,000,000 or more on a single win³. Press reports from 2016 also described a lower trigger of over KRW 2,000,000 being applied, and the two figures have not been formally reconciled, so treat KRW 5,000,000 as the headline trigger and expect withholding on large single wins³.

The legal category is not in doubt: the Income Tax Act lists prizes and dividends received from using slot machines, coin-operated machines and similar devices as other income⁵.

Separately from winnings tax, a visit to Kangwon Land can involve a tax of its own. The casino entry ticket costs KRW 9,000, and the entire amount is a tax that goes to the national treasury⁴. It breaks down into KRW 6,300 individual consumption tax, KRW 1,890 education tax and KRW 810 in additional tax⁴. The operator's English pages list the same components²⁴.

Foreign visitors do not pay this entry tax. Customers holding a foreign passport, or a Korean citizen's overseas permanent residence passport under the Overseas Emigration Act, are exempt, though you must show the passport itself; a driver's license is not accepted⁴. This is one of the few points where the tax side of gambling in Korea differs for foreigners versus citizens. For more on the venue, see casinos in South Korea.

Other income: how the taxable amount is calculated

All of these winnings land in the same place: the "other income" category of the Income Tax Act. The taxable amount is defined as your total gross receipts for the tax period minus necessary expenses incurred to earn them⁵.

For most gamblers this calculation never happens on paper, because the withholding at payout is the end of the story. The withholding rates you encounter are:

• The two lottery withholding bands shown in the table above⁹
• For betting refunds, the other income tax and resident tax described in the betting section, withheld when the odds top 100x on a refund above KRW 100,000, or when a single refund hits KRW 2,000,100²

The category is broad. Besides gambling, it covers prize money, contest rewards, lottery and prize draw winnings, and slot machine payouts⁵. A court ruling confirmed in 2026 that the Income Tax Act classifies property gains from participating in speculative acts as other income without considering whether the act was lawful⁶.

What operators pay: the 10% turnover levy at Kangwon Land

The tax on winnings is only one side of the ledger. Operators pay their own levies, and at Kangwon Land the biggest is a charge on casino turnover, which reverts to the government under the Tourism Promotion and Development Fund Act, along with certain other taxes²⁵.

The KRW 9,000 entry tax described above is another operator-level levy in practice: the casino collects it from each visitor who is not exempt, and the full amount goes to the national treasury⁴. The operator's own pages note that admission is otherwise free and parking is free²⁴.

These levies are part of why Kangwon Land exists at all. The casino was built in a former mining region to fund regional development, and a substantial share of its revenue flows back to the state rather than to shareholders²⁵.

No separate gambling tax for companies

To close the loop on a common question: there is no standalone "gambling tax" in South Korea, either for players or for companies. Everything described on this page flows through the Income Tax Act's other income rules for winners, and through specific levies for operators, such as the turnover charge and entry tax at Kangwon Land⁵.

For companies, the taxes that touch gambling are the general ones: the turnover levy at Kangwon Land, the individual consumption and education taxes built into the entry ticket, and the betting duties deducted from racing pools before winnings are calculated. There is no additional corporate tax labeled as a gambling tax⁴.

For players, the summary is short. Winnings of KRW 2,000,000 or less from lotteries are tax-free. Above that, the two withholding bands described earlier apply: the lower rate up to KRW 300,000,000 and the higher rate above it. Betting refunds are tax-free up to KRW 100,000 per bet, or up to KRW 2,000,000 at odds of 100x or less. Large slot wins at Kangwon Land are taxed from KRW 5,000,000. In every case the tax is withheld at payout, so what you are handed is yours to keep.