Inside Asian Gaming

SEPTEMBER 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 25 Now Japan has to put flesh on the bones of thousands of regulations to govern a nascent industry that virtually every current and would- be casino operator on earth wants a piece of and a decisive majority of citizens appear to oppose. IN FOCUS P ASSAGE of Japan’s Integrated Resort Implementation Bill in July culminated more than a decade of effort to legalize casinos in the world’s third largest economy. That might have been the easy part. Now Japan has to put flesh on the bones of thousands of regulations to govern a nascent industry that virtually every current and would-be casino operator on earth wants a piece of and a decisive majority of citizens appear to oppose. The bill passage hands stakeholders – actual and aspiring – a lengthy to-do list featuring key next steps, including tough decisions long put off until Japan actually approved IRs. “Now that we have a real law, everything we do on a daily basis has real consequences,” MGM Resorts Japan CEO Ed Bowers says. Some major decisions have already been made regarding Japan’s IRs (see column by Global Market Advisors’ Brendan Bussmann on Page 32), the most notable being that Japan will grant up to three licenses for IRs to include convention, exhibition and tourism facilities. The national government will award licenses via bids from local jurisdictions’ legislatively endorsed investor groups. Junkets will not be allowed in Japan’s IRs