Japan gaming is ready to climb Mount Fuji. Last week’s award of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to Tokyo ignited more than the Olympic torch in the Japanese capital. The gaming industry hailed the announcement as the road to legalized casinos in Asia’s largest untapped gaming market.
After all, Japan has to find a means to pay for an estimated $1.53 billion in Olympic venues before the world’s athletes descend upon Tokyo.
Two large-scale resorts — one each in Tokyo and Osaka — could be worth $10 billion in annual gaming revenues, said Union Gaming Group Principal Grant Govertsen. Those figures would surpass not only the Strip ($6.2 billion in revenues in 2012) but all of Nevada, which produced $10.86 billion in gaming revenues last year.
Casino operators could be taxed as much 10 percent nationally on gross gaming revenues and also pay local fees and licensing costs.
“We think the government should consider integrated resort development, at least in Tokyo, as a means to help the related Olympics infrastructure come to fruition,” Govertsen told investors the day after the announcement.
Nevada’s largest casino operators flew to Japan to scout potential gaming locations soon after news of the Olympics broke.
Las Vegas Sands Corp., which has developed gaming resorts in Macau and Singapore and plans a massive complex for Spain, is scouting sites on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, a Bloomberg News report stated. MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment Corp. and two Macau casino operators, SJM and Melco Crown Entertainment, are also in the Japan mix.
MGM Resorts Executive Vice President Alan Feldman said his company has been looking at Japan for the past 18 to 24 months, monitoring the prospective legislation and meeting with possible partners.
“Japan represents an historic opportunity for tourism expansion in a country with an incredibly rich cultural heritage,” Feldman said. “Tokyo is in an extraordinary position to re-energize the entire country’s tourism and entertainment industry.”
Govertsen handicapped Las Vegas Sands and Malaysia-based Genting Group — which is developing the $2 billion Resorts World Las Vegas — as early front-runners. The companies are earning accolades for operating both destination resorts in Singapore, the world’s third- largest gaming-revenue- producing market behind Macau and Las Vegas.
But all this talk is just speculation. Asian markets such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Vietnam are further along on casino expansion. Read more about Japan gaming at the Review-Journal.
