JAPENESE CASINO NEWS
The nation of 128 million is looking to lift its ban on casinos to increase tourist arrivals and revive its gambling industry as the more traditional horse- racing and lotteries are suffering declines in revenue, and its pachinko industry is stagnating, he said. Japan's gross domestic product per capita of $39,195 is the highest in Asia and exceeds the $36,790 in the United States, according to Bloomberg data. This may make it the next target of global casino operators after Macao and Singapore as they increase their bets on Asia's growing gaming market, fueled by low-cost airlines and rising incomes.
Casino gaming in Japan would be very successful," Michael Chen, president of Asia Pacific for Harrah's, said in an e-mailed statement. "It has all the characteristics necessary for a terrific market - responsible government, large population, and broad wealth."
The Singapore government had asked for concept proposals from casino operators at the end of 2004 before lifting its ban in April last year. Two months ago, it awarded the first of its two casino licenses to Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest gaming operator by market value. The second concession will be given out later this year. Harrah's, the world's biggest casino operator by sales, was one of the four bidders for Singapore's first casino license.
Japan would be a latecomer to a gambling boom across the region, which is looking to Las Vegas-style super casinos to entice more tourists, with two huge complexes springing up in Singapore to take on the Chinese enclave of Macau. The Liberal Democratic Party in January created a subcommittee to study a legal structure and policy for casino entertainment. Six prefectures petitioned the central government to lift a ban on casino gambling, The Asahi newspaper said in February. Over the past few years, poker in Japan has become one of the most popular games in the casino we also have a review about this in our site.
"Nowadays casinos are not considered to be evil places, whereas they might have been considered so 20 years ago," said Aaron Fischer, an analyst who follows gaming at the investment bank CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
"Across Asia over the last few years you've been seeing legalization of casinos including in Singapore and Macau," he noted, predicting that Japan would follow suit within the next few years.
"Our company will continue to evaluate and pursue any opportunity, including Japan, which is in line with our business objectives and allows us to implement our successful business model," said Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands.
Lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are already drawing up proposals to allow a handful of huge Vegas-style casinos, which could open their doors within a few years. Almost half of the lower house of parliament -- including some opposition lawmakers -- supports the general idea of legalizing casinos, said Toru Mihara, adviser to the LDP's casino study group. The major US casino operators are already regular visitors to Japan, networking and lobbying behind the scenes to try to secure a lucrative contract in the world's second-largest economy, "There are approximately 5.5 million pachinko and pachi slot machines here in Japan. If you count this as similar to slot machines, we're the biggest casino country in the world," said Mihara.
Local entertainment companies are also expected to be involved as the government will be reluctant to hand over to foreign operators alone what some experts say is almost a license to print money. So US giants such as Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS - news) and Harrah's Entertainment could team up with Japanese companies such as Sega Sammy, Konami (Berlin: KOA.BE - news) or Aruze (Munich: 916069 - news) to build huge entertainment complexes including casinos, analysts said.
Although illegal backroom casinos exist in Japan, the only gambling officially open to the country's population of 128 million is on horse, speedboat and bicycle racing and lotteries. But anyone in doubt of Japan's love of a flutter need look no further than the nation's multi-billion dollar pachinko industry, which attracts some 17 million punters, from salary men to pensioners and even young women. Pachinko (PCKO.PK - news) , a Japanese version of pinball played in thousands of noisy parlors across the country, is not officially defined as gambling, because prizes have to be exchanged outside the premises for cash.
