Poker Writer
A Korean governor is pushing for a new casino resort that bucks the trend of typical Korean law and caters to Korean citizens. Lee Won-taek, the governor of Jeonbuk State in southwest South Korea, will seek the enactment of a special law with regulatory exceptions for the new casino.
Gov. Lee presented a detailed plan with the goal of attracting a casino resort to boost the tourism of Saemangeum, a tidal flat project at the center of big plans to become a new innovative hub of tourism in Korea.
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Saemangeum, From World’s Largest Seawall to Tourist Destination
An official promotional video from 2022 promotes the area by saying, “This place is Korea’s New Hub.”
Saemangeum is not an island, but a unique estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea on the shores of Jeonbuk. It was previously a habitat for migratory birds. In 1991, a land reclamation project began. It took until 2010 to completely fill the world’s largest seawall. It was certified by the Guinness World Records as the longest man-made sea barrier in the world. The project added an area of almost 250 square miles to the Korean peninsula, making it one of the largest land reclamation projects in world history.
The goal of Jeonbuk is to make the seawall a place for tourism. A casino resort would enhance its attractiveness. The Jeonbuk government is working to bring events to Saemangeum. It hosted the World Scout Jamboree for the Boy and Girl Scout movement in 2023.
Governor Lee even mentioned the upcoming potential 2036 Summer Olympics bid from Jeonbuk. A “global leap” from Jeonbuk would help strengthen the bid.
A Casino For Korean Citizens
As per the plan presented by Gov. Lee, the potential casino would welcome Korean citizens. Currently, there is just one casino in all of Korea that allows Korean citizens to gamble, Kangwon Land Casino in Jeongseon-gun in the northern part of the country. It is otherwise illegal for Korean citizens to gamble.
The strict ban on gambling has led to the birth and spread of hold’em pubs, which authorities are cracking down on with increasing intensity.
Other Korean casinos, such as those on the island of Jeju, which hosts major poker tournaments, are only available to foreign tourists. Chinese nationals make up a large percentage of those who gamble at the Korean casinos. In fact, many of them rely heavily on Chinese patrons to drive profit.
The Saemangeum casino would be different as Gov. Lee wants it to be for Koreans. He stated that there are companies willing to invest in the casino, but it would require the enactment of a special law by the Korean government. He also pushed for a special law designating an international free city sector in Saemangeum.
There would also be considerable social pressure against the casino, considering Korea’s conservative traditional stance against gambling and casinos. But Lee has a potential solution for that, suggesting a system to limit the number of visits per person. Combining that with gambling spend limits would help mitigate social harms, the thinking goes.
Image credit: Grid-Arendal/Flickr (license)
