Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2012 44 Briefs Regional Briefs Kenji Tamura, chairman of the DPJ’s Cabinet section and of his party’s casino IR (integrated resort) working team, presided over the session in a meeting room at the House of Representatives. Toru Mihara, a guest professor of Osaka University of Commerce, gave lawmakers a presentation on IR schemes in other countries. Another speaker—Akira Kurita, from one of Japan’s biggest advertising agencies, Hakuhodo Incorporated—described the success of casinos in Singapore. According to GCM some DPJ lawmakers did voice opposition to the casino plan. In Japanese politics it’s usual for governments to seek political consensus before introducingmajor policy changes—unlike in theWest where governing parties often rely on a house majority or internal party discipline to push changes through. Japan’s approach means it can take longer than in the West to achieve a big change in policy direction. But the country’s recent natural and nuclear disasters coupled with an economic slowdown and an ageing population has created an urgent need for fresh sources of economic growth and government revenue. International tourism has been identified as one such source and integrated casino resorts as a catalyst for increasing inbound tourism. During the meeting, government bodies including the National Police Agency, Japan Tourism Agency and the Ministry of Health, Labour andWelfare were invited to submit comments on a proposed casino bill and to indicate if they would be willing to have official roles in the administration of a casino industry. According to GCM, the organisations agreed to provide official responses at the next briefing meeting. SPIELO International expands sales team in Asia SPIELO International’s Casino Systems and Asia Sales groups are working together to increase the company’s presence in the Asian gaming market with two appointments, effective this month. Marc Attal, Managing Director for SPIELO International Casino Systems, has appointed Lai Fatt Chiang as General Manager of Casino Systems for Asia Pacific. Based in Malaysia, Lai Fatt Chiang has 10 years’ experience in all aspects of the gaming industry in Asia. His past experience includes his role as Group General Manager at RGB International, as well as three years with SPIELO International’s games division (previously ATRONIC). “SPIELO International strongly believes in maintaining close relationships with its customers, and in understanding cultural differences among operators and players. This is the basis of our approach to the diverse Asian market,” said Mr Attal. “The appointment of Lai Fatt Chiang, who reports to Casino System’s International Sales Director Fivos Polymniou, demonstrates SPIELO International’s ongoing commitment to increasing support for its existing casino systems customers in Asia. Our intent is to strengthen the partnerships with our established in-country distributor channels throughout the region. Future appointments will add further expertise to this growing team.” Lai Fatt Chiang graduated from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, in Accounting and Finance. He speaks fluent Chinese high-speed rail network extends to Shenzhen An extension of China’s high-speed rail network was opened on 1st April, with service now running from Wuhan to Shenzhen (via Changsha and Guangzhou), with an end-to-end journey time of four hours and 15 minutes, as reported in a note from Union Gaming Research Macau. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province in central China while Changsha is the capital city of Hunan province in south- central China. The previous terminus of the high-speed rail line was the Guangzhou South railway station. This line will ultimately connect directly to Hong Kong through the Guangzhou-Shenzhen- Hong Kong Express Rail Link, scheduled to open in 2015. The new Wuhan-Changsha-Shenzhen direct service is part of China National high-speed rail grid (4+4), and carried 440 million passengers in 2011. According to Union Gaming: “We believe the more direct new route to Shenzhen (as opposed to Guangzhou) could have a positive impact on Macau visitation as Chinese tourist often tack on a Macau visit in conjunction with a Hong Kong trip. In 2011, the provinces of Hubei and Hunan (Wuhan and Changsha, respectively) accounted for just 1.6% and 1.9% of Macau visitation, respectively.” Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling party briefed on casino plans Parliamentarians from Japan’s governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) were given a special briefing recently about the plan to introduce one or more casino resorts to the country according to Gaming Capital Management (GCM), a consultancy. The plans have been developed by a special steering group of the DPJ and by a cross- party lobby group and are now being presented to all the lawmakers for their responses. The briefing in Tokyo was led by those members of the DPJ with responsibility for the Cabinet, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism—the three departments of national government that would have the key responsibilities when it comes to enabling legislation for casinos and for overseeing their development and operation. The DPJ lawmakers were updated about a proposed casino bill and on cross-party discussions held by the Diet Member Alliance for Promotion of Integrated Resorts. Maria Garcia