Inside Asian Gaming

IAG AUG 2021年8月 亞博匯 66 JAPAN T he clock is ticking on Japan’s IR dream, with the central government to start accepting applications from candidate locations and their chosen operator partners from 1 October 2021. With the following passage through the upper house of the IR Promotion Bill in December 2016 and the IR Implementation Bill in July 2018, the government will issue licenses for up to three locations to develop Japan’s first integrated resorts, which will include casinos. It has long been expected that the three locations will comprise two large metropolitan areas and one regional area with the primary goals of boosting tourism and reinvigorating local economies. However, with deadlines approaching, it remains tobeseenwhether therewill evenbe twometropolitan locations available to choose from. While Osaka, among the first to put up its hand for a large-scale IR, has long been considered all but a done deal, the jury is still out on the only other metropolitan candidate in the race, Yokohama. As it stands, Yokohama is the jewel in Japan’s IR crown. Located about half an hour by train from Tokyo Station, the city claims a population of around 4 million people but is easily accessible to the nearly 40 million people that comprise the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area. It was for this reason the world’s biggest IR operators flocked to Yokohama when Mayor Fumiko Hayashi officially declared the city’s candidacy in August 2019. The list of those operators that abandoned Osaka in favor of Yokohama – leaving 日 本綜合度假村（IR）發展日程緊迫，中央政府 將從2021年10月1日起接受候選地點及其所 選擇的營運商合作夥伴的申請。 在日本參議院分別於2016年12月通過《IR推 進法》和2018年7月通過《IR實施法》後，日本 政府將可為最多三個候選地點發出牌照，以開發日本首個含娛 樂場的IR項目。長期以來，人們預計該這三個地點將包括兩個 大都市圈和一個地方區域，以促進旅遊業發展和振興當地經濟 為主要目標。 然而，隨著最後期限迫近，是否有兩個大都市圈可作為候 選地點仍有待觀察。大阪是最先提出發展大規模IR項目的地區 之一，並被視為可佔一席位，但另一大都市圈選址橫濱能否競 逐成功仍是未知之數。 目前而言，橫濱是日本IR行業的掌上明珠。離東京站約半 小時的鐵路車程，橫濱人口約 400 萬，但連繫擁有近 4000 萬人 口的東京都市圈。 正是基於這個原因，當橫濱市市長林文子於2019年8月正 式宣布該市參與競逐後，全球IR營運商巨頭紛紛湧入該市參與 競標。銀河娛樂集團、 雲頂新加坡、拉斯維加斯金沙、新濠博亞 娛樂有限公司及永利渡假村等營運商放棄了大阪轉而支持橫 濱，只餘下美高梅國際酒店集團在大阪角逐。 時至今日，在橫濱競逐的企業僅餘下雲頂新加坡和新濠博 亞這兩家企業，餘下企業在過去15個月已退出競賽，理由是新 冠肺炎疫情對經濟的影響，以及日本就IR的嚴格規定令其改變 心意。