Kangwon Land, the only casino resort in South Korea permitted to offer bets to locals, will from January 1 offer a 10-day emergency ban mechanism applicable to problem gamblers, that can be requested either via email or fax by their family members. It will be available to any foreign players, as well as South Korean citizens.
That is according to an official of Kangwon Land Inc, the operator of the resort (pictured), in response to a GGRAsia telephone enquiry.
Should either an immediate member of a gambler’s family or a grandparent of the gambler, send the resort – either via email or fax – a request for that individual to be banned from the Kangwon Land casino, a 10-day bar on entry would be activated “immediately”.
To activate a longer ban, a family member must either submit certain supporting documentation by mail, or make an in-person visit within the period of the temporary ban period, to explain the case for a longer exclusion of the person.
An individual problem gambler that wishes to be barred, can under current protocols, only achieve that via either post or in-person interview at the resort.
For the family member seeking a ban of more than 10 days for a problem gambler, that relative would be able to choose either a one-year or three-year ban for the person, or an exclusion that is “permanent without revocability”.
The Kangwon land official explained that the aim of offering a temporary ban via either email or fax, was to lessen the economic losses faced by problem gamblers’ families, and to enforce the resort’s casino entry control protocols.
So far Kangwon Land has been activating family-requested entry bans on problem gamblers only after applications by family members made either by post or by personal visit, with a full submission of mandatory documents: requests via email or fax have not been possible.
According to the company official, 55 problem gamblers had bans by Kangwon Land issued between January 1 to July 31 this year.
Kangwon Land resort is in a remote upland area in the east of the country, three hours by road from the country’s capital Seoul.
