Kangwon Land to invest US$4.38m in new casino chips

Kangwon Land will phase out all casino chips over the next year.

South Korea.- Kangwon Land, the operator of South Korea’s only casino open to locals, has announced plans to replace its entire casino chip inventory by next year. According to local media outlets, the company intends to allocate KRW5.7bn (approximately US$4.38m) in 631,200 new casino chips by 2024.

This is the third time in two decades that Kangwon Land will renew its casino chips, but unlike previous partial-replacement exercises in 2008 and 2010, this time it will gradually phase out all existing chips. 

The decision to replace the chips is primarily driven by hygiene concerns given their high usage. Some of the low-denomination chips in circulation have been in service since the establishment of the main casino at Kangwon Land in 2003.

The new casino chips will be available in denominations of KRW5,000, KRW10,000, KRW100,000, and KRW1m. They will incorporate high-security technology against counterfeiting.

Kangwon Land has posted a net profit of KRW101.54bn (US$76.6m) for the first quarter of the year, compared to a net loss of KRW5.85bn of for Q1 2022. The figure was up 1,001.6 per cent in quarter-on-quarter terms.

Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for mass-market table games increased by 78.9 per cent, reaching KRW167.6bn. In contrast, membership club GGR experienced a decrease of 2.3 per cent to KRW30.4bn.