As international sanctions restrict North Korea’s revenue streams, the regime continues to exploit underregulated sectors of the global economy to finance its weapons program. And one of the most vulnerable to such misuse is the casino industry.

Junket operators catering to high rollers, organized crime networks with deep ties to the gaming sector and cryptocurrency mechanisms that make it easier to obfuscate ill-gotten gains together form a casino financial architecture vulnerable to DPRK exploitation, as documented in a recent Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) report.

Although explicit evidence is limited, the convergence of vulnerabilities