Complete Guide to Gambling in Korea
Despite appearances and legal hurdles, Korea is a huge gambling country, but only if you know where to find it. Check out gambling, poker, and casinos in Seoul.
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Life in South Korea as a foreigner is one of the most interesting adventures you’ll ever have. From the moment you first arrive, finding out “how Koreans do things” is an endless adventure. Later, we will be exploring interesting subjects such as food, nightlife, relationships, work, and family.
But in this series of articles, we’ll be learning about one of the oldest vices in the world and how Koreans do it. I will be guiding you on this journal from a first-person perspective.
Is Gambling Legal in South Korea?
Yes, gambling in South Korea is legal. Simple question, simple answer.
The most important fact you must know upfront is that Korea takes a very unfavorable view of gambling. This is most easily seen by the fact that Korea differentiates between its citizens and foreigners when it comes to gambling or online gambling.
Can Koreans Gamble?
How so? Koreans cannot gamble at casinos — with one exception I’ll mention later. Do not underestimate this because this shapes the entire gambling culture here.
South Korean citizens cannot even gamble at casinos even when traveling abroad. This jaw-dropping overreach is not limited only to gambling either. For example, South Koreans also cannot do any drugs such as marijuana when traveling even if it is legal in that country. The punishments are severe as well. South Koreans face up to 3 years in prison if caught at a casino abroad.
Yet, gambling finds a way. And there are a whole bunch of options for those who are inclined to partake in games of chance.
Both South Koreans and expats are able to engage in many forms of bet-based gambling. These include horse racing, boat racing, dog racing, lotteries, and many forms of scratch tickets. For example, one of the most popular gambling venues for Koreans is Seoul Race Park, which is a 40,000 seat gambling track about 20 km south of Seoul.
Seoul has even come to host premier events such as the Asian Poker Tour, which is often hosted at a major casino in Seoul (see my casino reviews).
Why are gambling laws in South Korea so strict?
It’s not hard to see why the Korean government has prohibited its citizens from gambling at casinos. It’s well known that Asians have a propensity towards luck and gambling, driven largely by a cultural belief in luck and fortune.
For those of you reading who have ever been in a casino located in a tourist location, you know what I’m talking about. Asians love gambling!
Everything you need to know about gambling in Korea
As I detail below, despite the Korean government’s desperate measures to stem gambling here, there is NO stopping Koreans from gambling. Simply put, it’s EVERYWHERE in Seoul despite being illegal.
In Korea, “illegal” is often just a suggestion.
Best Casinos in Seoul
The full version of this article is available here, including my full list of Korea’s casinos.
Millennium Seoul Hilton 7 Seven Luck Casino
Located by Seoul Station, Namsan Market, and Namdaemun Market, the Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel & Seven Luck Casino is the oldest but most popular casino in Seoul.
It is also one of the smallest and caters to a more “common” clientele, as it is the easiest to access for tourists staying all around the central Seoul area.
As a result, Seven Luck Casino Millennium Hilton is usually packed. It features baccarat, slots, and roulette as its staple games, with blackjack, war, 3-card poker, and Caribbean Hold’em Poker occupying a lesser capacity. There is no Texas Hold’em poker at Seven Luck Millennium Hilton Casino.
By the way, this game distribution is the same all throughout Korean casinos. It may be due to legal restrictions but most likely due to the fact that Asians love baccarat, whereas slots and roulette are very tourist, lady-friendly games.
For amenities, the restaurant is small and not that good. Certainly worse than Paradise Walkerhill.
Gangnam COEX 7 Seven Luck Casino
The newest addition to the Seoul Casino scene is Seven Luck Casino COEX. It is a part of the massive COEX exhibition hall, Starfield shopping mall, and Intercontinental (COEX and GRAND) complex. Seriously, COEX as a term takes up an entire small city outside Samseong (삼성) subway station.
COEX Seven Luck is an exception in that it is not attached to a hotel. Instead, it has a back entrance that opens into Starfield COEX mall and of course a front entrance as shown.
It is the newest and “nicest” of the Seoul casinos. Nice is somewhat objective but it is new, clean, and usually not ever crowded. Its game distribution is exactly the same as its sister casino up north. Some of the minimum betting limits used to be higher due to it being located in Gangnam, but last time I checked (a few months ago), Millennium Hilton Seven Luck had raised its limits as well.
Seven Luck COEX casino does have Texas Hold’em poker. So this should be good news for anyone staying around Gangnam. The bad news is that the game is minimum 2,000/5,000 KRW with 15,000 won / 10% max rake. Also, the game is not as lively or as popular as the one at Paradise Walkerhill, which is located not too far from Gangnam itself.
My advice, just take the trip to Paradise Walkerhill.
Paradise Casino Walkerhill
The jewel casino of Seoul, although that’s not saying much.
Paradise Casino Walkerhill is the best casino in Seoul by far and most closely resembles a Las Vegas or Western casino experience. It is located far away from any subway station, with the closest being Gangbyeon (강변) station (there is a free shuttle bus located outside exit 1 of the subway station. Exit 1, turn left, go past the food stands. Go across the street. Across from Technomart is a shuttle bus stop).
You then take a 10–15 min shuttle bus ride to the top of a mountain, where Sheraton Walkerhill dual hotels are (really, there’s a Sheraton and Walkerhill together).
The casino resembles a Westernized experience and is by far the biggest. It also has waitresses in fishnet stockings, which is allowed because it is privately owned-Seven Luck is owned and operated by the government. Check out the post below for a nice video of dancing gogo girls at the casino.
The game distribution is mostly the same as at the Seven Luck casinos, with a few small exceptions like big wheel spin game. The most notable exception is poker: Walkerhill does have Texas Hold’em poker.
This is the oldest and most popular legal game in town. Lots of regs, degens, and tourists. The typical game is 1,000/3000 KRW (used to be 1,000/2,000) but 2,000/5,000 is a regular game almost every night and certainly on weekends. They also run tournaments every weekend (usually, 100k-300k buy-in. There’s also a monthly big stack poker tournament with 10 m KRW guaranteed prize pool).
The dealers are by far the most competent here, as they do ensure quality. I’ve been going for close to 10 years and all of the pit bosses in the poker room are former dealers.
