South Korea's casinos are in something of an odd situation. While there are 14 of them and licences have been issued for three more, only one of them is actually open to South Korean citizens. All the others are restricted to foreign nationals. As South Korea is not, despite certain attractions, known as a great tourist destination, this has meant most of the casinos running at 10% or so of capacity.

Koreans themselves are inveterate gamblers and in recent years there has been an explosion of online casinos in the Korean language, which the Government is busily trying to close down. There is also extensive gambling on horse racing, sometimes even bicycle racing and other sports events, as well. But despite this huge cultural predisposition to gambling, South Korea's casinos are hampered by the fact that only one of them is allowed to let the local citizens inside.

A list of South Korea's Casinos includes:

Busan: Paradise Casino Busan

Cheju City: Cheju KAL Hotel and Casino

Cheju Oriental Hotel and Casino

Crowne Plaza Casino Cheju

Paradise Grand Casino

The Shilla Cheju's Casino

Incheon: Paradise Olympos Casino

Jeongseongun: Kangwon Land Resort and Casino

Kyongju: Wellich Choson Hotel and Casino

Samseong: Seven Luck

Seogwipo City: Hyatt Regency Cheju Casino

Lotte Hotel and Casino

Seoul: Paradise Walker-Hill Casino

Sockch'o City: Sorak Park Hotel and Casino

In addition to these South Korea casinos, there are also horse racing tracks in Busan, Cheju City, and Seoul. Eight of South Korea's casinos are located on the resort island of Chuju, while the other casinos are in the capital and larger cities.

The South Korean Government is so keen to limit their citizens' ability to gamble that not only does it, as above, try to shut down Korean language online sites, it also attempts to block them from even being seen inside the country. There have also been a number of attempts to make it illegal, or at least stop the practice of people using credits cards issued in South Korea to gamble elsewhere.

While South Korea's casinos cannot, as above, allow the local citizens inside to play (except in that one case), this doesn't stop gambling from actually going on. There are myriad illegal places all over the country where games can be played for money. It is also true that many take the short flight to Macau, the ex-Portuguese colony, where gambling thrives. Finally, the very richest ignore all the restrictions simply by taking a plane to Las Vegas.

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The list of Ghana's casinos is quite short: not a surprise for a poor African country. Actually, by the standards of Africa, Ghana isn't actually all that poor. It was the first African country to shake off colonialism in 1957, led by Kwame Nkrumah. The next 30 or so years were the usual struggle against the economic incompetence of the various rulers, including the almost traditional military coup. Things finally got sorted out in the 1990's, and the economy is now growing again, giving the inhabitants roughly twice the income per head that is usual in Africa.

Still, that level of income does not support a thriving gaming industry, so as we say, the list of Ghana's casinos is still quite short.

In fact, there are four in the entire country.

List of Ghana's Casinos:

Accra: Golden Tulip Hotel & Royal Casino

La Palm: Atlantic Casino and Royal Beach Hotel

Kumasi: City Hotel & Ashanti Casino

Tema: Merdian Hotel & Club Vegas

All these casinos have both slot machines and gaming tables. For the latter two, the provincial ones, blackjack and roulette, while the ones in the capital, Accra, also have poker tables.

While there are both gold mining and timber sales as industries in Ghana, most of the population and most of the economy is based on subsistence (or peasant) agriculture. This is one reason why the list of Ghana's casinos is so short. Another is that while there is a tourist industry, it is aimed at African-Americans coming to see their roots, looking at the slave forts, and so on along the coast. This really isn't a market that is known to gamble very much.

In fact, for much of the area's history there have really only been two exports: slaves (The Ashanti Kingdom was a prime source for the Arab slavers long before whites reached the area), and gold: indeed, the country still boasts one of the largest mines and gold companies in the world, again named after the ancient kingdom, Ashanti.

Gambling and casinos have traditionally done very well in mining areas, but this is changing as the business becomes more capital intensive: no longer are there armies of well-paid miners tearing at a hillside. Now it is very few people and large numbers of very expensive machines. Machines, as you may have noted, do not gamble.

So, there are the reasons why the list of Ghana's casinos is so short. A poor country, based on agriculture, the tourist industry is not oriented to a market that is likely to gamble, and there are very few local workers who make enough to gamble.