Kangwon Land has been fined KRW564m (US$382,400) by South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit over weaknesses in its AML controls, in a move that underlines the growing regulatory focus on casino compliance standards across Asia.
According to the regulator, the operator failed to properly verify or report 11 cash and casino chip transactions involving seven customers between late 2022 and mid-2024. The transactions were worth at least KRW110m (US$74,500) in total.
The Financial Intelligence Unit also identified broader control weaknesses in record keeping and customer due diligence. It said 29,993 financial transaction records were not properly retained for business conducted between November 2022 and April 2024. In addition, 43,060 customer identification records were not kept for the minimum required period between November 2022 and June 2025.
The regulator further raised concerns over customer risk assessment procedures, stating that 67,946 non-member customers were not subjected to adequate due diligence during the review period.
Kangwon Land has been instructed to strengthen internal controls across transaction reporting, customer verification and suspicious activity monitoring. The company has also been given two months to implement a comprehensive customer risk assessment framework and update its internal compliance policies.
The case is significant beyond South Korea because Kangwon Land operates the country’s only casino where local citizens are permitted to gamble, giving it a unique position within the national market.
For the wider international sector, the penalty is another reminder that AML enforcement remains a core regulatory priority for casino operators, particularly where high cash volumes, chip transactions and large-scale customer processing create elevated compliance risk.
In Asia’s regulated land-based markets, supervisory expectations are continuing to tighten, with record keeping, monitoring and customer due diligence all under increasing scrutiny.
