Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | 10 COVER STORY Dreamworld Pailin is building toward introduction of an authorizing bill, but not before elections in July to the House of Councillors, the Diet’s upper chamber, which is still controlled by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and where a coalition led by the LDP hopes to seize a majority. The non-partisan caucus says it wants to submit a bill by the fall with a view to securing legalization within two years, according to a recent Reuters report. “You need both sides of the equation before things really get moving. We want to make that happen this year,”said the caucus’s deputy leader, Takeshi Iwaya, another prominent LDP lawmaker who served in Mr Abe’s first government in 2006. Given Japan’s sizable urban population and high propensity to gamble, the viability of casinos in the world’s third- largest economy has never been in doubt, and global names of the likes of Las Vegas Sands and Genting have expressed interest in investing a lot of money. The country has long hosted thriving racing and lottery industries, and a machine gaming sector centered on the pinball-like game pachinko is estimated to generate some US$200 billion in revenue a year. Investment brokers CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets estimate that one resort-scale casino in Tokyo and one in Osaka or another major city could be worth at least $10 billion a year, easily surpassing the $5.9 billion Singapore’s two resort casinos generated in 2012 and the $6.2 billion booked on the Las Vegas Strip last year. Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose has hinted at his support, and it is reported that Osaka’s popular pro-casino Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a founder of the rightist Japan Restoration Party, also wants to sponsor a casino bill. That said, a multiplicity of divergent political interests together with a history of governmental instability have been major obstacles, especially when combined with the country’s inherent social conservatism. Advocates hope to finally overcome these with the backing of Mr Abe, who was returned to power in December and has been winning popular points with his aggressive approach to tackling the T he word out of Japan is that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government may include casino development in a new national economic growth plan to be drawn up next month. English-language daily The Japan Times , citing unnamed but “informed” individuals, reports that Mr Abe may propose special zones for investment in privately operated resort complexes featuring hotels, casinos and other attractions. He told the Budget Committee of the National Diet’s House of Representatives in March that lifting the country’s longstanding prohibition on casinos is an idea with “merit”. Advocates have been pushing gaming’s potential economic benefits for the better part of a decade with little by way of political traction to show for their efforts. However, this go-round they appear to have the requisite support at the top and have secured an influential former chief cabinet secretary as their leader, Hiroyuki Hosoda, a veteran of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said to be a confidante of Mr Abe’s. The news that Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura have been appointed to advise the pro-casino caucus in the House would also indicate that legislative momentum Shinzo Abe distributor and lessor of EGMs in Cambodia (670 of them in NagaWorld) and the Philippines opened its first Dreamworld- branded casino in Pailin last May with 26 tables, two VIP rooms and 50 EGMs. Built for US$2.5 million it was immediately hailed by equity analysts Union Gaming Research Macau as the “category killer” of the borderlands. The company is slated this month to open a more elaborate slots-only casino in Poipet for $7.5 million. EGA also has eyes for the province of Kampot on the southeast coast where the pickings have been less than lush. A fairly big casino there abruptly closed its doors in January: Hà Tiên Vegas, it was called, situated across the Mekong Delta from the picturesque beaches of the Vietnamese province of the same name. Not far away, in the Bokor Highlands about two hours south of Phnom Penh, Thansur Bokor Resort and Casino, where EGA also leases machines, is reported to be struggling in its first year. No Time Like the Future JAPAN