Choi Heung-jip (pictured) headed a state-run casino company , but stepped down after being accused of unfairly hiring employees at the request of local politicians, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday.
The news service reports that Choi was immediately arrested following the conviction of a local court in Chuncheon City and will serve his sentence in the case with two former Kangwon Land executives.
Gangwon Land is the only casino in Korea that can gamble with foreigners. The rural facility’s 293,757-square-foot arcade is Asia’s largest and has more than 180 game tables and about 1,360 slots.
GGRAcia cited a September article in the Korea Times newspaper that only 518 of the approximately 5,200 applicants for Kangwon Land casinos . Later, it was alleged that Choi and two colleagues illegally manipulated the evaluations of some of these candidates in favor of those with ties to senior politicians.
Furthermore, the food chain and local public broadcaster KBS World Radio reported in July that lawmakers Kwon Sung-dong and Yeom Dong-yeol of the opposition Liberty Korea Party were indicted on charges of abusing their power in connection with the Kangwon Land casino hiring scandal, four months after South Korea’s Moon Jae In president ordered 266 casino employees to be fired.