Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2011 12 Cover Story S houldn’t Japan’s triple blow of natural disaster, nuclear accident and associated economic fallout boost rather than diminish the case for casinos in that country? Provided they’re built robustly and kept away from the coast and power stations, the rationale in favour of casino gaming has if anything been bolstered by the country’s current misfortunes. It’s possible that the appetite of foreign operators and foreign banks to bankroll any such venture has been diminished by recent events. But the notion that the Japanese would ever have accepted the idea of majority foreign ownership of a casino project or projects was arguably at best wishful thinking by foreigners. There’s certainly, however, a precedent for countries looking for a quick stimulus to the economy or undergoing major economic shock to look to casino operators as partners to engineer a partial fix. Singapore is an example of the first scenario, and Ireland an example of the second one. Singapore’s ‘issue’ was a flagging tourism sector blamed on fresh regional competition from the likes of Hong Kong for the lucrative airline stopover visitor segment. Barclays Capital said in comments to the news agency Agence France Presse recently that the two integrated gaming resorts that opened in Singapore last year are contributing an estimated 0.3% to 0.4% annually to the city- state’s GDP. Barclays added this could rise to 0.7%“in the near future”. Ireland’s problem was a budget deficit linked to lax credit policies in the country’s banking sector. That budget hole could peak at 125% of GDP according to an analysis in The Economist this month. Ireland’s Department of Justice recently said it had received a proposal for a US$427 million ‘super casino’ on the banks of the river Liffey in the country’s capital, Dublin. Even before Japan’s recent calamity, the country’s ageing and shrinking population had created an argument for A Yen for Change The case for casinos after Japan’s disaster