'Gambling in the Republic of Korea'
In Korea, most here do not have easy access to casinos or poker rooms. While we do have access to sports betting, the odds by Sports Toto and Sports Proto are poor compared to what can be found online. This is why internet betting is such a phenomenon.
Foreign online poker sites in South Korea, based abroad, are also very popular as players get to access the largest poker rooms in the world. Online Lottery in South Korea The lottery is present in South Korea since the first half of the 20th Century, always with the aim of financing culture and social causes. In South Korea, gambling activities are illegal. Even more, it is a crime for Koreans to gamble outside the borders. Nevertheless, some state controlled gambling activities are allowed, like horse racing, lottery and betting on some sports. To encourage tourism activities, South Korea has 16 casinos where only tourist can enter. The only casino in Korea at which it is legal for Korean citizens to gamble is Gangwon Land. A small cramped casino located out in the middle of nowhere so that it would discourage gamblers; it is filled to capacity every night. Gambling for foreigners, on the other hand, is completely legal and encouraged.
www.bodog88.com is operated from the Philippines where gambling is legal. They are however an international company. They have a .ca website for Canada and a sister brand in the US market called Bovada. The Bodog88 site is for Asia. Of the many languages supported is Korean, and of the many currencies supported is the won (원) (sign: ₩; code: KRW).
At Bodog Koreans can bet sports and play poker, casino and Mahjong for real money. You can fund your account with bank transfer from any Korean bank. From their cashier enter the amount you want to deposit. They will give you the details of their Korean bank account, and you go to your local bank and make a transfer.
This is all done on a post-up basis. For example, if you have ₩200,000 and make a bet for ₩50,000 your account balance is then ₩150,000. If your bet wins the ₩50,000 is added back to your balance and the winnings are added too. If you are lucky your balance will keep growing. At any time you want to cash out some or all of your balance you log-in to the Bodog88 cashier and request a withdrawal. They will transfer the money to your bank and you will have it in a couple days.
Bet365 is an Even Better Option
Using www.bet365.com is not as easy as using Bodog88 but it is well worth the added hassle involved to get set up for making easy deposits. This is the world's largest online gambling site and is the 7th largest private company in the UK. They stream live sports matches right from their website and have in-play betting.
They even have in-play betting on Korean sports including K-League, Korean Cup, League Cup and National League for football (soccer), WKBL and KBL for basketball, and men's and women's Volleyball League. They also have prematch betting on KPB baseball, beach volleyball and badminton from Korea. The sports betting odds are far better than Sports Toto and Sports Proto – plus you can bet leagues from anywhere else in the world too.
In addition there is a casino with live dealer games, slots, lottery and video poker. They have a very popular online poker room too.
Using Skrill in South Korea
To deposit with Bet365, or other gambling sites besides Bodog88 which takes bank transfer, an e-wallet is required. The best one for South Korea is www.skrill.com. This acts essentially as an online bank account. You should open your Skrill account in Euros (not Korean Won) as the currency. The reason why is because most every betting site accepts Euro but not many accept won. Later if you want to use many other gambling sites (which can be done to claim bonus offers, and promos and to find better odds) having your account in Euros will come in handy.
It is highly advised Koreans follow all steps to verify their Skrill account ASAP. This includes verifying your home address. When you request this verification they will send a letter to your home which has a code to enter online once it is received. You might also have to send them scans of your ID.
To fund your Skrill account you can try using your debit or credit card. If it does not work you will need to go to your bank and make a transfer in Euro. Once you have money in Skrill you can deposit it to www.bet365.com. They offer a 100% up €100 cash bonus (about ￦142,000) so for a ￦142,000 deposit you get an extra ￦142,000 free to bet with. You can also cash out your winnings to Skrill. The funds can then be used to deposit with other betting sites or to have the money transferred back to your Korean bank account. As mentioned, this works just like an online bank account. The difference is it has fast transfer to and from gambling sites.
Now that you understand how online betting from South Korea works, I will cover our legal forms of land based gambling and make some comparisons.
Online texas hold'em real money. This online poker casino lets you play poker online for real money. It's consistently rated as one of the best online poker sites for US players. The reason why it's rated as one of the best online poker sites US players is due to its various features. Some of the features it has included a 100% casino match bonus that goes up to $1000. Play Texas holdem online with Top Internet Casinos: With these great casinos, you can play Texas holdem poker at any time. No matter what type of casino games you prefer slots, table games, Hold'em, slots or live dealers, the top gaming sites have everything a gamer could wish for and payouts that may just rival the real thing!
1 | 2 | Next: Sports Betting Laws in Korea
South Korea is one of the most advanced and economically vibrant countries in Asia, although Asian countries do tend to be behind the times so to speak compared with developed nations in some other parts of the world, particularly in comparison to a lot of European countries, as far as gambling goes, and South Korea is as well, at this point anyway.
Commercial gambling is something that is fairly new to Asia and while they have embraced it quite a bit over the last few years, this is an area which has traditionally been quite conservative when it comes to permitting gambling, and the focus thus far has been on looking to capture tourist dollars, more so than establishing a strong domestic gambling market.
This may be due to a view of gambling in Asia that tends to view it in a harsher light than elsewhere, seeing it as more predatory, where countries mind less that foreign tourists are subject to this than their own people, who they still look to 'protect' from it to a degree.
This certainly does appear to be the case in South Korea. In some countries in Asia, the poorer ones in particular, they don't worry so much about this due to the casinos they set up being too upscale for a lot of their people to be able to gamble at, although in South Korea, it's pretty affluent as far as Asian countries go, and there are many that would like to gamble at South Korean casinos, but they are for the most part forced outside the country to do so.
So South Korea does have a lot of casinos, 22 in fact, and 18 of them are large casino hotels, but with the exception of a single one in a remote location in South Korea, they cater to foreign tourists only, and South Koreans are not allowed to play there. (1)
The laws of South Korea in fact make gambling illegal other than in certain circumstances, which include being able to gamble at this one remote casino, the Kangwon Land Casino, as well as playing the state sanctioned lottery, which includes the ability to bet on sporting contests, and betting on racing, such as horse racing, cycling, and boat races.
Other forms of gambling are subject to fines, under article 247 of the South Korean Criminal Act up to 5 million won (about $4500). Operating an illegal gambling establishment risks a fine up to 20 million won ($18,000). (2)
So South Koreans for the most part do their land based gambling while on vacation in other countries, particularly in Macau and Singapore, which are both fairly close by, but even this is considered a crime, even though the crime takes place in another country essentially.
There is a movement in the Korean government to look to change this though, and a top government official has recently spoken out against what he calls these archaic laws, although there is also strong opposition within the government to maintain these laws, it might be a while before we see some real change happen here. (3)
This would certainly help the gambling industry here grow even more, and there are a lot of people in South Korea who would probably rather spend their gambling dollars in their own country rather than have to travel elsewhere to do it, and this would certainly expand the land based poker industry here.
Playing Poker in South Korea
In spite of it being illegal for South Koreans to gamble outside of the few permitted gambling options available to them, illegal gambling here is rampant. There are some underground casinos but most of the illegal gambling here occurs online. The government estimates that the illegal gambling market here is worth at least $66 billion dollars a year, a huge amount.
This is in spite of the crackdowns that the government is known to take against it, and as is the case in many other countries, if the people want to gamble, they will do it in spite of it not being legal to do so. (4)
As far as online gambling goes, it's so popular here that there are actually illegal South Korean sites that run even though the government tries hard to get them shut down. They also look to block foreign sites, although a lot of South Koreans are hip to technology and access online gambling sites through virtual private networks and use internet wallets to defeat their government's attempts to impede their access to these sites.
At Bodog Koreans can bet sports and play poker, casino and Mahjong for real money. You can fund your account with bank transfer from any Korean bank. From their cashier enter the amount you want to deposit. They will give you the details of their Korean bank account, and you go to your local bank and make a transfer.
This is all done on a post-up basis. For example, if you have ₩200,000 and make a bet for ₩50,000 your account balance is then ₩150,000. If your bet wins the ₩50,000 is added back to your balance and the winnings are added too. If you are lucky your balance will keep growing. At any time you want to cash out some or all of your balance you log-in to the Bodog88 cashier and request a withdrawal. They will transfer the money to your bank and you will have it in a couple days.
Bet365 is an Even Better Option
Using www.bet365.com is not as easy as using Bodog88 but it is well worth the added hassle involved to get set up for making easy deposits. This is the world's largest online gambling site and is the 7th largest private company in the UK. They stream live sports matches right from their website and have in-play betting.
They even have in-play betting on Korean sports including K-League, Korean Cup, League Cup and National League for football (soccer), WKBL and KBL for basketball, and men's and women's Volleyball League. They also have prematch betting on KPB baseball, beach volleyball and badminton from Korea. The sports betting odds are far better than Sports Toto and Sports Proto – plus you can bet leagues from anywhere else in the world too.
In addition there is a casino with live dealer games, slots, lottery and video poker. They have a very popular online poker room too.
Using Skrill in South Korea
To deposit with Bet365, or other gambling sites besides Bodog88 which takes bank transfer, an e-wallet is required. The best one for South Korea is www.skrill.com. This acts essentially as an online bank account. You should open your Skrill account in Euros (not Korean Won) as the currency. The reason why is because most every betting site accepts Euro but not many accept won. Later if you want to use many other gambling sites (which can be done to claim bonus offers, and promos and to find better odds) having your account in Euros will come in handy.
It is highly advised Koreans follow all steps to verify their Skrill account ASAP. This includes verifying your home address. When you request this verification they will send a letter to your home which has a code to enter online once it is received. You might also have to send them scans of your ID.
To fund your Skrill account you can try using your debit or credit card. If it does not work you will need to go to your bank and make a transfer in Euro. Once you have money in Skrill you can deposit it to www.bet365.com. They offer a 100% up €100 cash bonus (about ￦142,000) so for a ￦142,000 deposit you get an extra ￦142,000 free to bet with. You can also cash out your winnings to Skrill. The funds can then be used to deposit with other betting sites or to have the money transferred back to your Korean bank account. As mentioned, this works just like an online bank account. The difference is it has fast transfer to and from gambling sites.
Now that you understand how online betting from South Korea works, I will cover our legal forms of land based gambling and make some comparisons.
Online texas hold'em real money. This online poker casino lets you play poker online for real money. It's consistently rated as one of the best online poker sites for US players. The reason why it's rated as one of the best online poker sites US players is due to its various features. Some of the features it has included a 100% casino match bonus that goes up to $1000. Play Texas holdem online with Top Internet Casinos: With these great casinos, you can play Texas holdem poker at any time. No matter what type of casino games you prefer slots, table games, Hold'em, slots or live dealers, the top gaming sites have everything a gamer could wish for and payouts that may just rival the real thing!
1 | 2 | Next: Sports Betting Laws in Korea
South Korea is one of the most advanced and economically vibrant countries in Asia, although Asian countries do tend to be behind the times so to speak compared with developed nations in some other parts of the world, particularly in comparison to a lot of European countries, as far as gambling goes, and South Korea is as well, at this point anyway.
Commercial gambling is something that is fairly new to Asia and while they have embraced it quite a bit over the last few years, this is an area which has traditionally been quite conservative when it comes to permitting gambling, and the focus thus far has been on looking to capture tourist dollars, more so than establishing a strong domestic gambling market.
This may be due to a view of gambling in Asia that tends to view it in a harsher light than elsewhere, seeing it as more predatory, where countries mind less that foreign tourists are subject to this than their own people, who they still look to 'protect' from it to a degree.
This certainly does appear to be the case in South Korea. In some countries in Asia, the poorer ones in particular, they don't worry so much about this due to the casinos they set up being too upscale for a lot of their people to be able to gamble at, although in South Korea, it's pretty affluent as far as Asian countries go, and there are many that would like to gamble at South Korean casinos, but they are for the most part forced outside the country to do so.
So South Korea does have a lot of casinos, 22 in fact, and 18 of them are large casino hotels, but with the exception of a single one in a remote location in South Korea, they cater to foreign tourists only, and South Koreans are not allowed to play there. (1)
The laws of South Korea in fact make gambling illegal other than in certain circumstances, which include being able to gamble at this one remote casino, the Kangwon Land Casino, as well as playing the state sanctioned lottery, which includes the ability to bet on sporting contests, and betting on racing, such as horse racing, cycling, and boat races.
Other forms of gambling are subject to fines, under article 247 of the South Korean Criminal Act up to 5 million won (about $4500). Operating an illegal gambling establishment risks a fine up to 20 million won ($18,000). (2)
So South Koreans for the most part do their land based gambling while on vacation in other countries, particularly in Macau and Singapore, which are both fairly close by, but even this is considered a crime, even though the crime takes place in another country essentially.
There is a movement in the Korean government to look to change this though, and a top government official has recently spoken out against what he calls these archaic laws, although there is also strong opposition within the government to maintain these laws, it might be a while before we see some real change happen here. (3)
This would certainly help the gambling industry here grow even more, and there are a lot of people in South Korea who would probably rather spend their gambling dollars in their own country rather than have to travel elsewhere to do it, and this would certainly expand the land based poker industry here.
Playing Poker in South Korea
In spite of it being illegal for South Koreans to gamble outside of the few permitted gambling options available to them, illegal gambling here is rampant. There are some underground casinos but most of the illegal gambling here occurs online. The government estimates that the illegal gambling market here is worth at least $66 billion dollars a year, a huge amount.
This is in spite of the crackdowns that the government is known to take against it, and as is the case in many other countries, if the people want to gamble, they will do it in spite of it not being legal to do so. (4)
As far as online gambling goes, it's so popular here that there are actually illegal South Korean sites that run even though the government tries hard to get them shut down. They also look to block foreign sites, although a lot of South Koreans are hip to technology and access online gambling sites through virtual private networks and use internet wallets to defeat their government's attempts to impede their access to these sites.
The government is so serious about shutting down online gambling that they have even gone as far as to shut down Facebook social games, in an effort to prevent people from playing poker, even though the games there are with play money, and even though non gambling games such as Farmville ended up being blocked as well. That‘s mighty serious stuff indeed. (5)
Poker is pretty popular here, especially online poker, and while there are underground games that do run, almost all of the poker here is played online these days. There is also live poker at the casinos but once again they exclude South Koreans. Walter Hill Poker in Seoul is a particularly good spot if you are just visiting.
Seoul now has a spot on the Asian Poker Tour now, which certainly doesn't hurt promoting its popularity in this country.
Live poker is pretty much a niche thing these days and while live poker does have certain features about it that you can't get playing online poker, almost all real money poker these days is played online anyway, so the more limited access that South Koreans have to live poker is probably not seen as a big deal, and it really isn't given that anyone can log on to the internet and play as much online poker as they want, any time they want.
Korea certainly does not have regulated poker at this time, and it's illegal for South Korean companies to operate online poker sites, although in this country that doesn't stop them. As far as playing online poker goes, there are no specific laws against it, although it is still believed to be illegal anyway, but that doesn't stop a lot of people from playing, and it is extremely difficult to catch people doing so, especially if you take precautions, as the players generally do here, and are to some degree actually forced into doing so.
So keeping in mind how eager the government is to prevent South Koreans from playing online poker, it is certainly advisable that players who wish to do so use a VPN to connect to it and use an internet wallet as well, and there are a great many South Koreans who do so and get to enjoy playing this great game online.
References:
1. South Korea Casinos
2. Is Gambling Permitted Under South Korean Law?
Is Online Poker Legal In South Korea Now
3. South Korea To Revise its Gambling Laws
4. Online Gambling in South Korea
5. Korea Shuts Down Facebook Games
Is Online Poker Legal In South Korea Won
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