우리나라 카지노산업의 역사

History of the Casino Industry in South Korea

The purpose of this paper is to overview the casino industry in South Korea and suggest future trends. The first casino-related law traces back to 1961, but modern casinos are regulated by the Tourism Development Law as one of the tourism businesses in 1994. In 1967 the Olympos casino was first opened in Incheon in order to provide foreign tourists with entertainment, and in the following year the Walker-hill casino was opened in Seoul. In 2000 Kangwon Land casino was opened as the first casino for Korean nationals. Currently 16 casinos operate for foreign visitors, and they attracted 1.9 million foreign visitors with expenditures of US$ 882 million in 2010. Kangwon Land operates for domestic and foreign visitors and attracted 3 million total visitors with expenditures of US$ 1.1 billion. Integrated resort (IR) casinos similar to those recently built in Singapore are expected to be a major trend in the future. Also, responsible gambling strategies should be emphasized in the casino industry as code of ethics to protect casino visitors.