In less than one year the gift certificates printed for prizes at gaming operations in South Korea have reached a value of 23 trillion won (US$24 billion), a huge increase on the 400 billion won (US$418.1 million) issued between September 2002 and December 2004. The majority of the gift certificates (98.5%) are reportedly being returned to the operators in exchange for gambling chips instead of being used for such items as cultural products, one of the19 types of government designated gift certificates.

There is a growing political argument over the proliferation of video slot machines in arcades around Korea, and the ruling party has been accused of being involved. Apart from the KangwonLand Resort & Casino, all casinos in Korea are foreigners-only. However, restrictions had been lifted on arcade game machines, and the regulations governing the issue of gift certificates were altered. Since then the number of slot machine arcades has risen to 14,998 and 4,000 Internet cafes have been converted to gaming venues.

Before December 2004 gaming machine players obtained a gift certificate when they finished playing. With the rule change a certificate is now issued each time a player reaches 20,000 points. The government also gave consent for the commercialisation of the video game ‘Pada Iyagi,’ but the manufacturers and suppliers are to be investigated in a move to discover if there were irregularities in how they obtained that permission. (E-08.21.06)

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