CEC, the company that has been running the dealer school Japan Casino Academy, received an order for commencement of bankruptcy proceedings from the Tokyo District Court on 17 August. CEC was originally established in September 2014 in Shibuya. The company’s debt is currently being calculated.
CEC opened Japan Casino Academy with the goal of training professional casino dealers. In addition to operating multiple campuses in Tokyo, there were also locations in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo.
The school first gained real notoriety with a full-page ad in the Osaka and Tokyo editions of Sankei Shimbun in 2018. Online courses were also offered and as of August 2020 annual sales were reported at JPY 120 million (US$880,000), making it the largest dealer school in Japan.
On the other hand, there were also reports from students of issues such as course content differing from what was advertised. Over the past few years the company had scaled down operations and closed locations until finally filing for bankruptcy. The company’s official website is already offline.
Japan’s IR dream has been whittled down from what looked set to become one of the world’s most exciting new casino markets just a few short years ago, with only two candidates now in the running despite a maximum of three IR licenses up for grabs.
MGM Resorts remains the most likely contender to be granted one of those licenses for its planned IR in Osaka, while questions remain over the second bid by Casinos Austria and Nagasaki.
A potential third bid being put together by Canadian investment firm Clairvest Neem Ventures and Wakayama prefecture was ultimately quashed by local authorities earlier this year.
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