Poker in Pyongyang: Life and death in North Korea's casinos | NK News
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September 26, 2026Sep 26, 2026

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Poker in Pyongyang: Life and death in North Korea’s casinos

Foreign employee’s death raises questions about ownership of country’s gambling industry

He jumped to his death – at least that’s what the authorities say.

Casino worker Lei Weng Fu, 29, died on June 5 in North Korea, his cause of death attributed as “multiple bone fractures” by the Pyongyang hospital which conducted the autopsy.

His family doesn’t believe them – they believe he might have been pushed. Nobody’s quite sure how it happened.

A citizen of Macau, Lei worked in Casino Pyongyang, in the bowels of the capital’s famous Yanggakdo Hotel. He was saving up to buy a noodle restaurant in his hometown and was, according to his family, happy with