North Korea Casinos

North Korea Casinos

There are two casinos I've heard of that are located in North Korea.

Casino Pyongyang

Casino Pyongyang is located in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It opened in 1998 in the basement of the 1,000 room, 47 story Yanggakdo Hotel with Stanley Ho (Macau casino mogul) as one of the investors. The hotel is situated on an island on the Taedong River.

North Koreans are not allowed into the casino, even to work there; the workers are mostly from China.

Fellow chip collector Mark Cotton has graciously allowed the use of his scan of Casino Pyongyang chips. The chips were given to him by a friend who went through quite some trouble to obtain them. Thanks Mark!

Casino Pyongyang Chips

The 2 chips on the left appear to be manufactured by Bourgogne-et-Grasset. The chip on the right is a jeton with a serial number, unknown manufacturer.

Emperor Hotel & Casino

Emperor Hotel & Casino is located in the Rajin-Sunbong Special Economic Zone (also known as Rason), North Korea. It first opened in July 2000 and is near the border with China (it's biggest customer base) and Russia. Initially the casino saw a lot of customers from China including a Chinese official who used embezzled funds to gamble. Since then the Chinese government cracked down on the casino and customers are fewer.

This chip was ordered but never delivered. Anyone have actual casino chips from here?