Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUN 2019年6月 亞博匯 22 COVER STORY T his table had a wheel, just like a roulette table. But where you’d expect the betting layout, there was just a thick, lumpy blanket of chips, with another blanket where you’d expect another layout on the other side of the wheel. Within a minute, the wheel stopped spinning, the chips were cleared and, voila, a normal layout appeared where all of those chips had obscured any hint of the numbers. Welcome to Kangwon Land, the only casino in South Korea where Koreans can play without showing a foreign passport and where, even in a down year after table reductions, dealer shortages and curtailed hours, gross gaming revenue surpassed US$1.1 billion, more than the combined total of Korea’s 16 foreigner-only casinos. Located 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Seoul, Kangwon Land emerged from Korea’s conversion to gas and oil for energy, leading to the closure of mines in Gangwon province in 1989. Legislation in 1995 encouraged redevelopment of abandoned mining areas, prompting local, provincial and national authorities to found Kangwon Land Inc, 51% government owned and overseen by the national Ministry of Knowledge Economy, with remaining shares floated on the Korean stock exchange. With a monopoly on Korean play through 2025, ownership treads a delicate line between profitability and perceived social responsibility. A 30 table, 480 machine casino and 197 room hotel opened in October 2000 at an elevation of 1,137 meters If you want a seat at a gaming table, use your High1 card to get on the waiting list, then join the throngs of back bettors until you get an assignment. Foreigners get shunted off to a corner of the floorwith eight tables. 如果你想在賭枱邊坐下，需要用你的High1卡先進入等候名單，然 後加入一群候選投入者，直至得到分配。外國人被分流到娛樂場一 角的八個賭枱上。 (3,730 feet). In April 2003, the current casino hotel complex opened down the hill, expanded to 100 tables, 960 machines and 477 guest rooms. Over a dozen years, the casino nudged upward to 200 tables and 1,360 machines over 12,792.95 square meters (137,702 square feet). The biggest move in 2014 added 68 tables, 400 machines and an upper level gaming floor accompanying a second hotel tower with 250 rooms aimed at convention business. All of it is part of High1 Resort, with a footprint of 11.9 million square meters (2,941 acres), featuring Korea’s highest golf course, ski runs and hiking trails, plus hotels and condos with a total of 1,827 rooms. Last July, High1 opened Water World, an indoor/outdoor water park that officials say makes the resort a year round family destination. HIGH HEALING A spokesperson says CEO Moon Taegon, an auditor by trade halfway through a three-year term that began in December 2017, wants to make High1 a “healing resort” themed as a “national shelter with flowers, wind, forest and light.” Improvements set to open before Moon steps down include a luge track, suspended glass walkway and performance fountain. A “Coal Mining Cultural Park” is also under development. Thanks to road improvements linked to the 2018 Winter Olympics in nearby Pyeongchang, the drive to