KangwonLand, South Korea’s largest and most lucrative casino, the only one in the country open to gambling by Korean nationals, has been rocked by a scandal into hiring practices that allegedly allotted jobs based on political connections or ties to other influential individuals.
The governing Democratic Party has called for the reopening of an investigation into influence peddling at the state-owned casino, which admitted that 493 of the 518 people hired in 2012 and 2013 got the jobs through such connections.
“We apologize for committing a crime which would have been possible only in the 1960s or ’70s,” operator Kangwon Land Inc. said. “A thing of the past is tarnishing the image of Kangwon Land, which has been trying hard to improve its transparency in recent years. It breaks the hearts of all employees and we are very sorry.”
According to The Korea Times, those hired via their connections included a former intern of Secretary-General Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, whose Liberty Korea Party was the ruling party at the time the hirings occurred.
The corruption was originally uncovered in 2015, but the case was quickly closed that same year under the Liberty Party’s watch with only CEO Choi Heung-jip, who ran the company from 2011 to 2014, and one other executive indicted.
“This is an unimaginable corruption scandal involving a state-run company, which is funded by taxpayer money,” Democratic Party spokesman Choi Suk told The Times.
The opposition Justice Party also has criticized the handling of the investigation and is now claiming there was a cover-up.
“Kangwon Land Gate,” as the scandal is dubbed, is making headlines nationwide.
Located in a remote mountainous province northeast of the capital of Seoul, Kangwon Land’s ability to admit Koreans has generated annual revenues that generally surpass the country’s 16 foreigners-only casinos combined.
At the same time, gambling is a sensitive topic in South Korea and tightly regulated and Kangwon Land’s success has been in itself a cause for scrutiny, with critics saying it has not done enough to mitigate problem gambling. This has led to the property imposing visitation limits and other restrictions on players deemed to be gambling excessively.
