Inside Asian Gaming

January 2017 inside asian gaming 7 Cover Story W hen Genting Group Executive Chairman and CEO Lim Kok Thay said in November that Genting Singapore was pulling out of its US$1.8 billion integrated resort project in Jeju, South Korea, to focus on casino development in Japan, many snickered. Over the past 18 months, Korea has gone from hot to not in gaming circles as it became clear the new IRs would not be open to locals, so it wasn’t surprising that Genting would abandon an expensive project with limited prospective returns. But Japan? That was the longest running false alarm in Asian gaming, with no real progress made along the way despite more than a decade of effort. Surely Lim Kok Thay could’ve produced a better excuse! Then, in the early hours of 15 December, Japan’s Diet approved the Integrated Resort Promotion Bill, the first step toward creating what would likely be the world’s most expensive IRs and further evidence that it is unwise to doubt Mr Lim, whose Genting Singapore ranks among the hot favorites to gain a license, when and, yes, still if, Japan casinos become reality. The lone certainty so far is that casino legalization in Japan has never been closer. Optimism blossomed when Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a casino supporter, rertuned to power in December 2012. He did so with a lower house majority but a coalition “There has been a shift in focus from IR development for the purpose of the 2020 Olympics to a focus on attracting foreign tourists to Japan on an enduring basis into the future.” Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe partner, Komeito, that strongly opposes casinos. Integrated resort development was subsequently proposed as a perfect complement to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, leading to the late 2013 introdution of casino legislation that went nowhere. Since then, Greenberg Traurig Tokyo Associate Ryo Takizawa says, “There has been a shift in focus from IR development for the purpose of the 2020 Olympics to a focus on attracting foreign tourists to Japan on an enduring basis into the future. “It is generally understood that now is the proper timing to