Gambling addiction help in South Korea

Verified helplines

Helplines and online chat

The national gambling helpline is 1336, dialled without an area code. It is free and confidential, open 365 days a year from 09:00 to 22:00, and run by the Korea Problem Gambling Agency (한국도박문제예방치유원). Counsellors give advice and refer callers on to one of the agency's 15 regional centres.

The same service takes contacts in writing as well as by phone — online chat, message board, SMS and KakaoTalk — which matters if you cannot speak freely where you are. The agency's head office is on 02-740-9000. Counselling is in Korean; lines in other countries are listed in the helplines directory.

Self-exclusion

Korea has no single register that blocks a person from every operator at once. Restrictions are arranged with each operator, and the most developed scheme belongs to Kangwon Land in Jeongseon, the only casino Korean nationals may enter.

Applying for yourself or for a relative

A person can apply for themselves with an application form and a copy of their ID. A family member — a spouse, or a direct ascendant or descendant — can apply on their behalf, submitting a family relationship certificate and a copy of their own ID.

A first application may be for one year, three years, permanent suspension or a permanent ban. A second application must be for three years or longer. A third can only be permanent.

Lifting a restriction is deliberately difficult

Fixed terms lapse on their own when they expire. A permanent restriction that a person applied to themselves can be reviewed only after five years, and only with confirmation of treatment from a medical institution together with a commitment to the casino's addiction care programme. A permanent restriction applied for by a family member cannot be lifted at all while the family relationship stands.

Visit-day limits

Separately from exclusion, Kangwon Land caps everyone at 15 entry days a month and 30 in a quarter. Crossing those thresholds twice in a row triggers a one-month refusal, then two months, then a permanent ban. Anyone can also volunteer for a tighter cap — between 1 and 14 days a month, for six months to three years — through the prevention counselling office on 080-7575-545. That contract cannot be reversed mid-term; it can only be tightened further.

For online gambling, which no Korean operator is licensed to offer, the practical tool is device-level software rather than an operator scheme — see apps that block gambling sites.

Free treatment and counselling

The Korea Problem Gambling Agency runs 15 regional centres. They provide individual and group counselling, financial and legal education, and links to local services, and they refer people on to hospitals for treatment. Counselling through the agency is free.

Crisis intervention and outpatient psychiatric treatment are arranged through those hospital partnerships. Where a regional centre is too far away, the agency contracts private counselling practices to deliver the service instead, so distance is not meant to be a barrier.

Kangwon Land funds its own addiction care centre, KLACC, on 080-7575-545. It counsels by phone, video call, chat, KakaoTalk and in person, and runs self-assessment tools and over-immersion prevention programmes. If you want to check where you stand before calling anyone, our gambling self-assessment uses the standard screening questions.

Support for family and friends

A relative's clearest lever in Korea is the Kangwon Land entry restriction. A spouse, or a direct ascendant or descendant, can apply to have someone barred and can choose one year, three years or permanently, submitting the application form with a family relationship certificate and a copy of their own ID. A permanent family-applied ban is not reversible on the excluded person's request.

The 1336 helpline and the regional centres counsel families in their own right, not only as a route to the person gambling. For the conversation itself, see how to help someone with a gambling problem.

Gambling law and the regulator

Gambling is a crime in Korea unless a specific statute permits it. Article 246 of the Criminal Act punishes gambling with a fine of up to ₩10 million, with an exception only where it amounts to no more than temporary amusement. Habitual gambling carries up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to ₩20 million.

Seven sectors are licensed and supervised by the National Gambling Control Commission: casinos, horse racing, cycle racing, motorboat racing, bullfighting, the sports promotion betting ticket (Toto) and lotteries. Foreign online casinos are not among them, so playing on one falls under Article 246 like any other unlicensed gambling.

Casinos in Korea are otherwise open only to foreign passport holders. Kangwon Land is the single exception for Korean nationals, and even there no one under 19 is admitted. Entry costs ₩9,000, which goes to the treasury as individual consumption tax, education tax and VAT.