Korea Racing Authority pushes for online betting

The Korea Racing Authority (KRA), the public company established to manage the racehorse industry in South Korea, has launched efforts to introduce online horse race betting in the country in the hopes of limiting illegal online betting.

A representative of the KRA’s Responsible Betting Department told iGamingBusiness.com the KRA hopes to introduce online racing betting and said that the authority held a debate at the Korean National Assembly featuring stakeholders on each side of the debate.

While online lottery and sports betting are both legal in South Korea, horse racing betting may only be conducted at racecourses or at the KRA’s LetsRun CCC-branded off-track betting lounges, which are available only to foreigners. Online casino is also not currently legal in the country.

The KRA operates and holds the exclusive betting rights over South Korea’s three racecourses: LetsRun Park Seoul, LetsRun Park Busan–Gyeongnam and LetsRun Park Jeju.

The KRA offers six types of pari-mutuel bet: win, place, quinella, exacta, quinella place, and trio. A 16% tax rate is paid on all bets, while the KRA takes a 4% commission on wins and places and an 11% commission on all other bets.

As of yet, legislation on online racing in South Korea has not been filed and the KRA said the matter was still very early in the process.