Gaming – Japan | Task force established to explore legal regulations

The inaugural meeting of a government task force designed to make recommendations on legal regulations for integrated resorts in Japan was held on Tuesday and chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The task force, which will examine the necessity and implementation of regulations for the country’s forthcoming integrated resorts, will make recommendations to Japanese authorities on licensing and advertising matters, as well as financial and taxation regulations.

It will also recommend policies to alleviate problem gambling – a major point of contention among critics of the integrated resort bill – and ways to keep criminal activities, such as money laundering, out of casinos.

“The world’s highest standards of casino regulations will be introduced, and policies to deal with issues like gambling addiction will be addressed,” the Japanese prime minister said during the meeting according to the Japan Times.  “This will create clean, Japanese-style integrated resorts.”

The task force, which is headed by Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, would be comprised of lawyers, accountants, economists and political analysts.

The body plans to analyze rules already in place in Singapore to minimalize problem gambling. These may include entrance fees for Japanese residents intending to enter casinos and a reporting system for public officials who regularly gamble at the integrated resorts.

A separate system may be established whereby problem gamblers or immediate family members can voluntarily include themselves on casino exclusion lists.

Last week, a government survey showed that 2.7 percent of almost 1,000 respondents said they had suffered from gambling addiction at some point in their life.

Although some forms of gambling are prolific in Japan, notably arcade game Pachinko, on which the Japanese wagered more than USD200 billion in 2015, the country’s gaming market is still considered immature. Analysts say that the casino market in Japan could be worth as much as USD40 billion.

Las Vegas Sands and Melco International Development have already signaled a willingness to invest billions of U.S. dollars into the opportunity.

Melco’s CEO Lawrence Ho said at a February event in Tokyo that “this opportunity is priceless and we’ll spend whatever it takes to win [the bid].” DB