Cumulative visits by those 60 and older jumped 36% in three years
Lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun calls for tailored prevention measures
One in two frequent visitors to Kangwon Land's casino this year — those who visited 30 or more days — are aged 60 or older, data released Monday showed.
According to materials submitted to Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Resources, SMEs and Startups Committee, of the 349,289 individual visitors to the casino from Jan. 1 through Sept. 15 this year, 87,533 — or 25.1 percent — were aged 60 or older. The individual visitor count treats the same person as one visitor regardless of how many times they came.
Among frequent visitors who came 30 or more days during the same period, the share of older visitors was markedly higher. Of 12,586 frequent visitors in total, 6,304 were aged 60 or older, accounting for 50.1 percent. Among the 2,437 visitors who came 60 or more days, those aged 60 and older numbered 1,172, or 48.1 percent.
The tendency of older visitors to return repeatedly also stood out in repeat-visit rates by age group. Among all visitors aged 60 or older, 7.2 percent came 30 or more days — three times the 2.4 percent rate for those under 60.
Cumulative visit counts, which tally each entry separately, also showed a rising trend among older visitors. Cumulative visits by those aged 60 and older jumped 36.6 percent, from 711,659 in 2022 to 972,440 in 2025.
The share of visitors aged 60 and older in total cumulative visits rose each year, from 34.2 percent in 2022 to 34.7 percent in 2023, 37.4 percent in 2024 and 39.2 percent in 2025. Through Sept. 15 this year, the figure soared to 41.5 percent, representing 718,568 visits.
The figures highlight the vulnerability of older adults to gambling addiction in the casino industry. "The proportion of older visitors among long-term and repeat visitors is overwhelmingly higher than among general visitors, and the upward trend is steep," Cha said. "Kangwon Land must place the protection of elderly visitors above casino revenue and swiftly strengthen tailored prevention measures, including checks on frequent-visit patterns and referrals to professional counseling."
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