G3-247 Report SOUTH KOREA
the Expo and Instant Housing Lottery and produces and supplies various instant lottery and scratch cards. Today it is one of the leaders in Korea’s online lottery business and was selected to develop the online lottery system Excellos in 2002.
KLS was the first company in the online lottery system and has partnered with lottery operating agency KB Bank to open over 5,000 retailers throughout Korea and also installed almost 10,000 online lottery terminals.
HORSE RACING Horse racing in Korea dates back in 1898 when a foreign
language institute held a donkey race on its sports day. In 1914 the country’s first race meeting was held to the public however these were conducted solely for enter- tainment purposes and no betting was permitted.
In the 1920s horse racing with betting made its debut and the Joseon Racing Club, the nation’s first ever authorised racing club, was established.
In 1923 the pari-mutuel betting system was adopted in Korea for the first time. The Sinseol-dong racecourse opened in 1928 and racing clubs were allowed to have their own racecourse.
In 2005 in a bid to raise the country’s racing profile and
promote the sport nationwide a third racecourse in Busan was opened. The KRA changed its
name to Korea Racing Authority and Jangsu Stud Farm and
Training Centre opened in 2007. The Horse Industry Promotion Act was enacted in 2011.
tery sales. In the last five years South Korea lottery sales have increased by 35 per cent.
The increase was largely driven by the demand for Lotto online lotteries which has sales alone of ₩2.9tr. Offline
lotteries including the pension lottery which totalled ₩210.4bn
According to the law 42 per cent of lottery revenues are then invested to support social welfare programmes of which 35 per cent of the infrastructure for the designat- ed purpose, 65 per cent for aid for vulnerable groups. In 2013 the lottery generated ₩1.34tr of public funds for the welfare groups.
Meanwhile after an international tender the NANUM LOTTO consortium awarded the licence to operate South Korea’s National Lottery to Intralot for the next five years until 2018. The system will look after the online and instant ticket products and the electronic lot- tery. Nanum Lotto consortium has been exclusively operating the South Korean lottery since 2007.
The Korea Lottery Services Co. began life in 1990 with
In 1933 a decree on horse racing was introduced which permitted incorporated racing clubs to conduct horse racing whilst the Joseon Horse Racing Association was set up to coordinate and control the clubs.
This association was later renamed as the Korea Racing Association (KRA).
Racing came to a standstill during the Korean War in the 1950s and racecourses were used for military training. So the KRA re-established the racecourse in Ttukseom in Seoul and the course opened in 1954 and served as the hub until it was relocated to the newer site in Gwacheon in 1989.
The Korea Racing Association Law was set up in 1962 and computerised pari-mutuel betting was launched in 1984. Up until this point pari-mutuel betting was done manually which impeded the development of the sport. This, plus televised coverage in colour, boosted incomes tenfold and saw the sector grow significantly.
The KRA was responsible for constructing the Olympic Equestrian Park during the games and this was built on 280 acres of land in Gwacheon area, south Seoul. After
the Olympics this park was renamed Seoul Racecourse.
Meanwhile in the late 1980s, as part of an effort to pre- serve the ponies native to Jeju island, a 180 acre race- course at the foot of Mount Halla in Jeju was built and this opened for pony racing in 1990.
In 2005 in a bid to raise the country’s racing profile and promote the sport nationwide a third racecourse in Busan was opened. The KRA changed its name to Korea Racing Authority and Jangsu Stud Farm and Training Centre opened in 2007. The Horse Industry Promotion Act was enacted in 2011.
Today there are three race courses in South Korea – Seoul, Busan-Gyeongnam and Jeju – and there are two kinds of racing – thoroughbred flat races held at Seoul and Busan and pony flat races at Jeju.
The sport is legal and tolerated although it is still consid- ered socially unacceptable by some.
Races are held weekly on Friday, Saturday and Sundays and there are around 12 to 16 races on a race day with on average 94 fixtures at each race track. Total attendance is over 16.1 million (2012) compared to 19.5m in 2011 with betting turnover over ₩7.83tr (approx US$7bn) com- pared to ₩7.7tr in 2011.
Seoul Racecourse is 284 acres in size with a grandstand capacity for 77,000 people. Busan is 307 acres with the capacity for 30,000 whilst Jeju is 180 acres and has a capacity for 6,393 people.
The Korea Racing Authority is the sole racing authority and is under the supervision of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. KRA aims to con- tribute national finances through horse racing to pro- mote and support projects for fishing and agricultural villages.
The authority’s objectives are to upgrade the horse industry and strengthen social responsibility. It holds the exclusive rights over racing operations both on and off course wagering.
allowed is ₩100 and the maximum per single bet is ₩100,000. Betting tickets are distributed through the on and off course betting terminals and through account betting. The terminals are controlled by the pari-mutuel Betting Control Centre in Seoul.
KRA provides six betting types – win, place, quinella, exacta, quinella place and trio. The maximum bet
Betting turnover per betting type in 2012 was Win (₩63.8bn); Place (₩105bn); Quinella (₩3.8tr); Exacta (₩1.4tr); Quinella Place (₩500bn) and Trio (₩1.8tr).
There are 30 KRA off course betting outlets in the coun- try with the majority in Seoul metropolitan area.
From the turnover of the industry 73 per cent is returned to the customer in prizes whilst the remaining 27 per cent is divided between taxes (16 per cent), general horse racing operational costs (seven per cent) and the four per cent profit is then divided between a reserve fund for development and welfare projects in the indus- try (2.8 per cent) and investment for the sector (1.2 per cent)
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