Kangwon Land Plots $2.3bn Expansion to Lure Foreign Visitors
Kangwon Land, the only casino in South Korea licensed to admit domestic gamblers, wants a bigger slice of the country's booming inbound tourism market, and is building a dedicated foreigners-only zone to get it.
South Korea's National Gambling Control Commission (NGCC) recorded almost 3.49 million visitors across the country's 17 foreign-passport-only casinos in 2025, a rise of 18.7% on 2024, official data show. Kangwon Land, the sole venue open to South Korean nationals, also grew, but far more modestly: visitor numbers rose 4.5% to just under 2.48m.
"We are enhancing the environment at Kangwon Land with the aim of evolving into a globally competitive integrated resort," Moon Chang-hoon, head of Kangwon Land's global marketing team, said. "We're creating a foreigners-only casino zone, adjusting our betting limits, and introducing more services tailored to international guests."
Overseas Visitors Still a Small Slice
The vast majority of Kangwon Land's visitors are domestic nationals, with foreign guests making up only about 1% of the total, Moon said.
To change that, the casino has opened a lounge for international visitors served by a direct bus link from Incheon International Airport and the Seoul metropolitan area, alongside multilingual booking services for skiers visiting the resort's slopes.
Kangwon Land sits inside the High1 Resort complex in the mountainous Gangwon Province, a region better known internationally for skiing than for casino gambling.
A $2.3 Billion Resort Overhaul
Kim Young-suk, head of Kangwon Land's media relations team, said the resort is seeing a post-pandemic rise in both domestic and international visitors, and plans to build a second casino facility to "ease space and seating shortages" in the existing gaming floor, alongside additional gaming equipment and a new VIP lounge.
The centrepiece of the expansion is the Grand Dome project, first unveiled last year at a cost of $2.3bn, which will add a media tower, a musical fountain and an indoor garden. Construction is due to finish in 2035, with Kangwon Land targeting annual visitor numbers above 13m, more than five times last year's total.
The operator's former acting chief executive, Choi Cheol-kyoo, previously said the revamped resort could eventually generate annual revenues of $2.6bn.
Kim said the company is also planning to add family-oriented guest rooms across its Grand Hotel Main Tower and High1 Mountain Condo properties as part of a push to be seen as a year-round resort rather than a "casino-centric" destination, even as table games such as baccarat and blackjack remain the biggest draw for domestic gamblers.
Casino Games Hub
What to Watch
South Korea's casino sector has largely recovered from its pandemic-era slump, with foreign-only casinos now growing faster than Kangwon Land itself.
Whether the new foreigners-only zone can meaningfully shift that balance depends on how quickly Kangwon Land can convert Gangwon Province's rising international tourist numbers, driven mostly by skiers, into gaming customers rather than day-trippers to the slopes.
