South Korea boasts a range of gambling options, such as horse racing, motorboat racing, bicycle racing, and casinos. Compared to Japan, it lacks motorcycle racing but has casinos. In reality, casinos in Incheon and Seoul have seen many fans from Japan thanks to frequent flights between both countries taking less than three hours.
I visited the horse racecourse in Seoul for the first time in November 2022, and the visit brought me great surprise at its overwhelming LED monitor on the far side from the stands over the home stretch. I had never seen such a massive vision like that at any racecourse in the world before. According to the news, the vision named “Vision 127” boats a 4K screen with dimensions of 127.7 meters wide and 13.6 meters high. The world’s largest screen is followed by Dubai’s racecourse with 110 meters wide and Kawasaki’s racecourse in Kanagawa, Japan with 72 meters wide.
When a screen is divided into multiples, it starts to show a variety of data, like odds, the result of the previous race, and videos in each division at the same time. Once they are integrated into one horizontal space again, it shows horses at much larger sizes than their true sizes. This greatly helps spectators in the stands keep watching every scene during the race and even see the expressions of both horses and jockeys.
Every time I go overseas, I realize that South Korea has been making significant technological progress. It also focuses on spreading out its products. I have seen more and more Korean cars recently, not only in Asian countries but also in other continents, but I remember that the roads used to be filled with Japanese vehicles, at least until a few years ago. Moreover, it’s a bit sad to see a TV set made by Korean manufacturers, mostly Samsung, in a room at every hotel in every country while they used to be made by Sony or Panasonic.
A huge monitor at a horse racecourse in Seoul.