Culture and history

In the pre-revolutionary period, there were folk games on the Korean Peninsula (yut-nori for holidays, card hwatu), but in the DPRK gambling practices were marginalized by ideology and criminal prohibition.

The post-war model has formed a cultural stigma: the game for money is interpreted as bourgeois excess, and for citizens access to excitement is closed.

Exceptions historically appeared only for foreigners - in individual hotels and FEZ, without public advertising and with currency settlements; they did not create an internal "game culture" and did not integrate into mass life.

In modern times, the image of gambling in the DPRK is controlled, peripheral practices for the sake of foreign exchange earnings, while traditional entertainment (table, sports, holidays) retain a non-monetary, collectivist character.