Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUN 2020年6月 亞博匯 92 JAPAN “As the employer, they want someone who can work quickly and knows many games. They also need to be honest in handling money.” – Hiroshi Katagiri 「作為僱主，他們想要一個能快速著手工作並了 解很多博彩遊戲的人。荷官還必須誠實地處理金 錢。」 ——片桐寛士 T here’s a fine line between fate and coincidence. Just when Hiroshi “Rocky” Katagiri was wrapping up his life in Las Vegas to make the move back to Japan, an invisible enemy was starting to rampage through Wuhan, China. “Starting a new business is hard enough as it is, but then COVID happened too. The plan had to be pushed back quite a bit,” Rocky explains of his ambitious push to establish Osaka’s newest school for casino dealers. In February of this year, he confirmed a location in Honmachi, in the center of Osaka city, and set up everything he could in preparation for launch. But it was tough. The casino tables and other equipment to be transported by ship were held up at ports in both the US and Japan, taking three months to arrive. Even the mention of the words “casino school” saw him turned away at the door of most properties. “The system in Japan when starting a new business isn’t very conducive to new things,” Rocky explains. “I was wondering if maybe it just wouldn’t work out.” But while having to delay opening by a month was a setback, he didn’t lose heart. This is because his ambition is to “train dealers who are world-class.” Since students will acquire knowledge of all aspects of gaming, Rocky named his school IR Gaming Institute, to give the impression of a research lab. “Japanese people are skilled with their hands so they learn the motions, but they don’t have the fundamental knowledge of why, for example, certain movements are necessary,” he says. 命 運和巧合之間只有一線之隔。正當片桐寛士 Rocky結束在拉斯維加斯的生活準備返回日 本時，一個看不見的敵人開始在中國武漢肆 虐。 「開始一項新業務本來就很不容易，但隨後 就爆發了新冠疫情。這個計劃不得不推遲一段時間。」Rocky解釋 說，他正雄心勃勃的準備推動在大阪建立全新的荷官學校。 今年2月，他敲定了地點，並且為開業做好了一切可以完成的 準備。這相當不易。海運而來的賭枱及其他設備在美國和日本的 港口均有所耽擱，直至三個月後才到達。甚至很多業主在一聽到「 博彩學校」這幾個字之後就將其拒之門外。 「在日本，當想要開展一項新業務時，社會對於新事務的接 受能力並不很高。」Rocky解釋道，「我曾想過這個想法也許根本行 不通。」 這所學校位於大阪市中心的本町。即使面對著不得不推遲一 個月開業的挫折，他也並未失去信心。