Gaming – Japan | Ho sold Russia casino to gain regulator favor

Lawrence Ho

Lawrence Ho says that he ceded control of a casino resort in Russia last year to improve his chances of winning a Japan gaming concession.

The chairman and chief executive of Melco Resorts & Entertainment told the Nikkei Asian Review that he was warned his company’s presence in Vladivostok could negatively impact his planned bid, in the context of the Russian Federation’s controversial 2014 annexation of Crimea and its territorial disputes with Japan. He implied that breaking ties with Russia would gain favor with Japan regulators.

“I did not want to do anything that would jeopardize how Japanese regulators see my other activities,” Ho told Nikkei, referring to the international sanctions against Russia and the dispute over the Kuril Islands. “Given that my main focus is Japan… I said let’s quickly clean that up.”

Russia’s reputation as an unregulated market compared to Asian gaming jurisdictions like Macau and Singapore might have also played into the decision, speculates Nikkei. Melco International’s slot machine division has already withdrawn from Cambodia, which is also regarded as a lightly regulated market.

Ho said he hasn’t completely given up on Russia and would “love to go back one day, assuming Russia is not enemies with the country that I want to be in [… and] if things are more transparent [and] operate more internationally.”

But for the young gaming mogul – like many other casino investors – Japan is the big prize. On several occasions, Ho has stressed that securing an integrated resort in Japan is the company’s biggest priority.

The company has said it would spend as much as USD10 billion to build a casino resort in a major city such as Osaka.

“Rarely do you find a first-world country like Japan with the infrastructure, tech and people already in place, yet the potential still so big,” he said in a recent interview.