South Korean casino Kangwon Land has been ordered to pay KRW 580m (US $520K) to a gambler who wouldn’t stop trying his luck.

The gambler, identified only as Kim, reportedly lost a total of KRW 20.8b ($18.6M) at Kangwon Land over a four-year period. Between April 2003 and April 2007, Kim paid a total of 181 visits to Kangwon Land, the only one of South Korea’s 17 casinos that allows local residents to gamble.

The Korea Times reported that Kim had asked Kangwon Land to ban him from the premises as early as May 2004, by which time he’d already lost KRW 10.8b. South Korean law allows gamblers to request a lift of their self-exclusion request following a three-month cooling-off period but Kangwon Land reportedly granted Kim’s request for a lifting of his ban after just one month.

Looking for a way to redeem his losses, Kim sued Kangwon Land, claiming the casino had violated the rules on entry bans. But the Seoul High Court ruled that Kangwon Land was only 20% responsible for Kim’s post-exclusion losses because the gambler knew that “entering the casino would result in losing money.”