GGRAsia – Jeju govt mulls more scrutiny over casinos

Jeju govt mulls more scrutiny over casinos

Dec 05, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

The provincial government of South Korea’s Jeju Island (pictured) plans to introduce new legislation in a bid to strengthen the management and supervision of casinos there, reports the Korea Times newspaper.

According to a February note from brokerage Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd, there were a total of eight foreigner-only casinos operating in Jeju, “all of which very small by international standards”.

South Korea currently has 17 casinos, but only one of them – Kangwon Land on the Korea peninsula – is open to local players.

The new legislation in Jeju, reportedly effective from January 2017, would stipulate that casinos must establish a permit system for people to enter restricted areas, such as the storage room of gaming devices and computer rooms inside gaming venues.

The revised legislation also states that casinos will have to increase the number of security cameras in their venues in order to reduce blind areas, reported the Korea Times.

The media outlet described the new legislation as an “upgraded version” of the Jeju government’s ordinance for the casino industry passed in June 2015.

The provincial government of Jeju is also mulling regulations aimed at enhancing transparency in the operations of casinos in the island, according to the report.

These regulations include the requirement that gaming companies should calculate their income on a daily basis. The government would also require casinos to record information of their foreign customers, including their name, nationality, date of visit, passport number and passport expiration date, the newspaper added.

Jeju recently has also attracted a lot of new gaming-related investment. The island does have some special concessions granted to its tourism industry by South Korea’s national government. The island is popular with mainland Chinese holidaymakers and offers them visa-free entry to Jeju if they arrive directly by international flight or international ferry or cruise ship. Mainland Chinese visitors to other parts of South Korea need a visa.