Gambler wants more damages in casino case

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Gambler wants more damages in casino case

The former head of a leather products company is back in court demanding more money from the government, whom the CEO blames for his gambling addiction.

Chung, 67, appeared at the Seoul High Court last week to appeal against a court ruling last November that saw a court order Kangwon Land, the nation’s only casino that allows in Koreans, to pay 2.8 billion won ($1.7 million) in damages. Chung says the amount awarded last year was not enough.

Between 2003 and 2006, Chung lost 30 billion at the casino. He had accumulated the money over a 30-year career. Chung filed a lawsuit last year, saying the government-run casino turned a blind eye to Chung making bets above the legitimate limit.

A court ruled in partial favor of him at the initial ruling in November, and ordered the casino to compensate Chung.

But lawyers hired by Kangwon Land, located in Gangwon Province, claim Chung lost the money in a “voluntary and normal way.” His next appearance in court is scheduled for July 29.

Chung says he knew nothing about poker and other forms of gambling until he first visited the casino six years ago. He was a self-made businessman with a fortune worth 30 billion won. He used to make it principle not to overextend himself on loans and he was frugal enough to pack a lunch so as not to spend extra money in restaurants.

He said it was hard to redeem the money he lost at the casino however hard he tried. “I believed I could gain back the money if I gambled some more. Then I got addicted,” he said.

Soon he wasn’t satisfied with the 10 million won per-bet limit. He even hired up to five people as subordinate betters, which means he bet up to 60 million won at a time. That accelerated his losses.

Over a three-year period he lost a building in Banpo-dong in southern Seoul that cost around 10 billion won, and his house, worth 2 billion won. He also poured his golf club membership and cash amounting to 10 billion won into the casino. Even when his daughter died in the United States in a car accident in 2006, he refused to fly over with members of the family, claiming he was too sick to travel. Instead he hunkered down in the casino.

Chung confesses he hasn’t recovered from his gambling addiction yet. “I still get the feeling that I can win back the money at the casino,” he said.

He is currently undergoing therapy for his gambling addiction once a week, he said.

Experts say that gambling addiction stems from a malfunction in the brain, not from the lack of an individual’s will. “A person who is born with a weaker part of the brain in charge of pleasure has a higher chance of getting addicted to gambling,” said Shin Young-chul, a psychiatrist at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. “The initial step to preventing and curing this kind of addiction is remembering nobody can be a winner at gambling.”


By Choe Sun-uk, Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]
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