With the opening of the Osaka Integrated Resort (IR) casino in Japan just four years away, efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic casino industry and develop response strategies are intensifying.
In addition, the structural problems of the casino industry are being highlighted by the arrest of multi-billion won illegal online gambling rings, the rise of new extortion crimes targeting gambling sites, and the fact that the cumulative deficit of Kangwon Land's non-casino businesses has exceeded 1.6 trillion KRW.
On the 14th, the Korea Casino Association announced that it would hold a 'Seminar on the Impact of Japan's IR Casino Introduction' at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul at 2:00 PM that day.
This seminar was organized to analyze the impact of the Osaka IR, scheduled to open in 2030, on the domestic casino industry and tourism market, and to explore countermeasures.
It is particularly noteworthy that the association is supplementing related research conducted in 2018 to align with the current market environment.
Professor Lee Choong-ki of Kyung Hee University will deliver the keynote presentation, and experts in the casino and tourism fields will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Professor Kim Nam-jo of Hanyang University. About 100 people from academia and the industry are expected to attend the event.
The Osaka IR is expected to have a significant impact on the casino market in Korea and the rest of Asia, based on the abundant tourism demand in Japan's Kansai region, an international airport, and large-scale accommodation and tourism facilities.
In particular, competition with Japan for foreign tourists is inevitable for foreigner-only casinos, and Kangwon Land, the only casino in Korea accessible to locals, is also required to innovate its facilities and services to prepare for potential customer attrition.
Voices in the casino industry are calling for urgent regulatory improvements to secure international competitiveness, the revitalization of investment, and strategies to link casinos with the tourism industry.
Judicial authorities have also achieved a series of major successes in investigations into illegal online gambling crimes.
The Chungnam Provincial Police Agency announced that it had apprehended 34 people, including 13 key members who were detained, for operating illegal online gambling sites worth 56.8 billion KRW using overseas servers and domestic call centers.
They are also accused of laundering 10.3 billion KRW in criminal proceeds by disguising them as gift certificate transactions while operating three gambling sites from May 2023 to March of this year.
The police seized 300 million KRW in cash and 17 luxury goods worth 700 million KRW, and have preserved 6.74 billion KRW for collection prior to indictment.
The Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station in North Chungcheong Province also arrested 10 people, including gang members and financial institution employees, who extorted 2.32 billion KRW by threatening illegal gambling site operators, with 9 of them being detained.
They are accused of laundering criminal funds using 81 borrowed-name accounts while also extorting money from 146 gambling sites by threatening to suspend their accounts.
It is pointed out that organized crime combining not only site operation but also money laundering, extortion, and financial crimes is spreading around the illegal gambling market.
Meanwhile, it was found that the cumulative deficit of Kangwon Land's non-casino business reached 1.685 trillion KRW.
According to an analysis by the office of Rep. Koo Ja-keun of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, the seven non-casino businesses operated by Kangwon Land, including hotels, condos, and ski resorts, recorded a cumulative loss of 1.685 trillion KRW as of last year.
By business, the losses were: Grand Hotel (542.5 billion KRW), Condo (509.7 billion KRW), Ski Resort (330.8 billion KRW), and Palace Hotel (195.8 billion KRW).
The deficit over the past six years alone is 885.4 billion KRW, and last year's loss reached 147.4 billion KRW. On the other hand, the cumulative profit of the casino business was recorded at 15.7245 trillion KRW.
Accordingly, at the National Assembly's state audit on the 19th, issues such as improving the deficit structure of non-casino businesses, the effectiveness of the K-HIT project, and management innovation plans by the new management are expected to emerge as key points of contention.
The casino industry points out that effective measures to strengthen competitiveness in preparation for the opening of Japan's IR, the sound development of the legal casino industry, and the eradication of illegal online gambling must be pursued simultaneously.
