South Korea’s largest casino Kangwon Land is under fire for alleged favoritism the state-run operator is showing certain electronic gaming machine (EGM) suppliers.

On Thursday, the Korea Times quoted People Power Party Rep. Ku Ja-keun saying three companies – Taeshin Inpack, Nongshim Data System Corp (NDS) and KGS – had claimed over half of the EGM supply contracts for Kangwon Land since 2013, even though some of those contract were awarded despite apparent violations of the tender process.

Taeshin Inpack is a subsidiary of cosmetics firm AmorePacific, whose chairman Suh Kyung-bae is the son-in-law of NDS chairman Shin Chun-ho. Suh is also cousin to the heads of both Taeshin and KGS. The three companies have bid on Kangwon Land contracts both separately and as a consortium, the latter winning three of four bids over the past two years.  

Rep. Ku is calling for a probe of Kangwon Land’s procurement process based on certain irregularities in the three EGM suppliers’ bids. NDS won an electronic table games tender despite submitting its bid after the July 22 deadline. Kangwon Land also agreed to ignore a stipulation that the casino gear include a ‘roll-back’ feature, something the NDS gear claimed to offer but didn’t.