For years, Japan remained a staunch opponent of any gambling expansion laws. However, over the past three years, the country has slowly softened its stance on the matter especially after being a witness to the rise of Macau as a thriving, vibrant and leading global gambling destination. Japan eventually legalized commercial casinos in 2016 after decades worth of debate on the issue. Then, in 2018, at the end of the legislative session, the country gave the green light for casino resorts.
In late March, the Japanese Cabinet made the next step forward for the gambling industry by approving some of the standards that developers and operators will have to fulfill when building their Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) properties. The Japanese lawmakers are betting on having the first three such properties up and running in the mid-2020s.
Some of the Requirements
Among several other requirements, the preferred developers of the three integrated resorts will be required to allocate over 100,000 square meters of accommodation space for their guests. The 100,000 square meters of accommodation space will be expected to ideally host 2,000 standard rooms of 40 square meters as well as 500 suites of 70 square meters. With these plans and requirements, the new developers will be responsible for the establishment of hotels that will be much larger than the currently existing ones.
One other notable standard that was laid out by the lawmakers pertains to casino advertising – these will only be allowed at the integrated resorts themselves as well as the airports and seaports. This is part of the authorities’ efforts to curb the issue of problem gambling in the country.
In addition to all the above, the developers will also need to ensure that their conference and exhibition facilities are up to the standards and requirements defined by the Japanese legislators. For instance, all three will each have to feature a 120,000-square-meter exhibition hall or conference room with a capacity of up to 6,000 people. Alternatively, the developers are allowed to opt for a hybrid design with both a 600,000-square-meter convention hall plus a conference room that holds at least 3,000 people. Also, all the first casinos will not be allowed to occupy over 3 percent of the total floor area of the integrated resorts they will be part of.
Japanese Cities Vote in Pro-Casino Leaders
Last Sunday, some of the locations whose cities are the top picks for Japans three integrated resorts (IR) held elections to choose their new pro-casino leaders. Fortunately, virtually all of the locations had their cities vote to keep or bring in people who are in favor of the casino expansion plans. Some of these locations include Tomakomai in the Hokkaido prefecture, Sesabo in Nagasaki, and Osaka.
