Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAN 2022年1月 亞博匯 34 COVER STORY on IR operators. All of these have impacted returns in the operators’ financial modelling. Further exacerbating potential returns from Japanese IRs is the recent approach of mainland China towards countries targeting its citizens for play in casinos. In February 2021, Japanese House of Representatives member Kenji Eda referred to the mainland China blacklist system restricting travel to foreign cities with casinos targeting Chinese visitation, noting, “… if we build casinos (IRs) in Japan, we cannot have expectations that foreigners, and especially Chinese tourists, will be able to visit.” Cultural clashes between the Japanese business style and that of the international IR operators have been revealing. Behind closed doors international operators refer to the “unreasonable expectations” of the Japanese, while the Japanese grow frustrated at what they deem foreigner’s lack ofunderstandingof theJapanese way of doing business. This may go some way to explaining why no major new international industry has emerged in Japan since the 1970s. Japanese jingoism has also played a role. Some believe that Japanese animosity toward China means no Chinese-based company (including those from Hong Kong or Macau) can hope to win an IR license in Japan. There is evidence to suggest this may have affected potential operators Galaxy, Melco and Oshidori, all of which are based in Hong Kong. In January 2021 Vitaly Umansky, Kelsey Zhu and Tianjiao Yu of brokerage Sanford C Bernstein summed it up simply, stating, “The Japan opportunity has been plagued with delays … and we maintain concerns around the high cost of development required and the potential returns.” Despite all the negativity, three locations in Japan do remain in the running for the up to three licenses to be issued 30%的博彩稅、對當地人徵收新加坡式 入場費、場地的博彩區域上限為3%、有 效縮短牌照期限，並將周圍公共基礎設 施成本強加給IR營運商。所有這些都影 響了營運商財務模型的回報。 中國內地近期對那些招徠其公民前 往賭場的國家所採取的措施，更進一步 不利好日本IR的潛在回報。2021年，日 本江田憲司在提及中國政府將吸引中國 遊客到海外賭場的國家或地區列入黑名 單時指出：「……如果在日本建造IR， 我們不能期待外國人、尤其是中國遊 客，可以來參觀。」 日本的商業風格與國際IR營運商 之間的文化衝突亦日益顯現。私底下， 國際營運商們抱怨日本人的「不合理預 期」，而日本人則對他們認為外國人對 日本經商方式缺乏了解而感到失望。這 可能一定程度上解釋了為什麼自20世紀 70年代以來日本沒有出現新的重要的國 際產業。 日本的沙文主義也發揮了作用。一 些人認為，日本對中國的敵意意味著沒 有一家中國公司（包括來自香港或澳門 的公司）有希望在日本獲得IR牌照。有 證據顯示，這些可能影響到潛在的營運 商銀娛、新濠及歐力士，這些公司的總 部都位於香港。 2021年1月，券商Sanford C Bernstein 的分析師Vitaly Umansky 、Kelsey Zhu 和 Tianjiao Yu 簡單地總結道：「日本的機會 一直受到延期的困擾……我們對所需的高 開發成本和潛在回報保持擔憂。」 儘管存在種種負面影響，日本的三 個地方仍然在爭奪由國家政府頒發的最 多三張牌照——和歌山、長崎和大阪。 警惕和歌山？ 2021年6月，因為其他各方的相繼