‘Casino Pubs’ Appear One After Another Where You Can Drink and Gamble Hold’em and Baccarat

 

Casino pubs where you can enjoy games while drinking are spreading across the country. Although the doors are being opened one after another in other areas such as Hongdae, Busan, Daegu, and Pohang, as well as in Hongdae, where there are many young people, the main target, the law is lax and the hand of crackdown has not been reached.

According to Article 247 (Crime of Opening Gambling) of the Criminal Act, a person who opens a place or space to gamble for profit is punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won. However, in the case of casino pubs, they are on the edge of the legal net.

Although the amount varies from store to store, in general, if you purchase a beer worth about 10,000 won, chips are provided to participate in the game. Since it is illegal to exchange the accumulated chips for cash, the store owners allow customers to use the chips to purchase alcohol and snacks inside the store.

Mr. A, who runs a casino bar, emphasized again that it is a simple place to play, saying, “It is illegal to exchange chips for cash or provide expensive products, but that is not the case.” However, at the bar run by Mr. A, he ranks those with the most chips and provides them differentially.

An official from the gambling industry monitoring and reporting center said, “If the chip is directly exchanged for cash or property (something with cash value), it is possible to file a report, but it is difficult to crack down on the act of exchanging alcoholic beverages with points. The police who did the investigation also conducted an investigation under the Food Sanitation Act, not the Gambling Act, and there is still no court judgment to refer to,” he said.

Casino bars carry the risk of addiction as well as the ambiguity of their identity.

Kim Ji-hoon (25), who first visited a casino bar through a friend's introduction, said, "It was past midnight while I was playing, and a drunk man continued playing card games without being able to control his body properly. I was worried about my friend who came and went,” he said.

Kim (25), who heard the news about the trend of casino bars, was also worried about the risk of addiction. "I don't know if it's enough to experience it once or enjoy it, but if you can control it that much, why are there so many people who are addicted to gambling?" he said. 

An official from the police station that had jurisdiction over the bar said, "Is there such a place in our area?" He said that it would be necessary to investigate with the city hall. He also added, "If you feel that visiting a casino or bar is becoming a habit, it would be better to refrain from visiting."