Inside Asian Gaming

IAG FEB 2021年2月 亞博匯 52 With 38 million people in its metro region, Tokyo would be an ideal location for the world’s biggest IR operators. 擁有3800萬人口的東京是全球大型IR營運商的理想之地。 JAPAN J apan is the holy grail of the global integrated resort industry – one of the last remaining advanced economies in the world without casino gaming. In theory at least, a Japan integrated resort ought to be very lucrative. Japan’s US$5 trillion economy is the third largest in the world, it’s a wealthy nation with a GDP per capita around US$40,000, and its local population has a proven propensity to gamble – with an enormous pachinko industry and the world’s largest horseracing market. Add to that a unique culture, spectacular architecture and design, and an exquisite F&B offering which attracts visitors from across the globe, and it’s easy to see why a Japanese IR should have both a robust local market and a constant stream of visitation sourced from domestic and international tourism. Over the last decade or so every major IR company in the world – and a wide range of other companies too – have spent cold hard cash exploring a bid for one of up to three IRs to be licensed in Japan’s so-called “first round” (noting that a second round of IR licensing may or may not occur seven years after the first, depending on the perceived success of that first round). Candidate operators were coming out of the woodwork from across the globe, notably even as far as South Africa with Peermont Hotels (operator of 12 properties across South Africa and Botswana) expressing early interest – but no longer in the running. COOLER HEADS PREVAILING In the early running, many companies were very upbeat. Melco Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho’s