CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
On guard As Japan moves towards legalising casinos, is Macau’s leadership position under threat?
BY LUCIANA LEITÃO
sented to the Diet, or parliament, pro- posing the legalisation of gambling in the country. T e director of the Centre for Amusement Industries Studies at Osaka University of Commerce, Toru Mihara, believes there is the political will to go ahead with legalisation. From what has been said to the
A
press “they want to present this draſt to the Diet within this year,” says Mr Mihara. And it seems the bill is like- ly to be approved, he said aſt er the “North Asia: South Korea, Taiwan and Japan” session at G2E Asia. Last month, a casino project to
help economic regeneration in the tsunami-ravaged area of Sendai northeastern Japan was openly dis-
in
bi-partisan league of congress- men is preparing a bill to be pre-
cussed by several congressmen. Although there seems to be a con-
sensus about legalising gambling in Japan, there are some groups worried about possible consequences such as fraud, the involvement of organised crime, under-age gambling and gam- bling addiction. Gambling is generally prohibited
in Japan but there are exceptions. Bet- ting on sports and lotteries is allowed, as long as they are controlled by local governments or government corpora- tions. And pachinko parlours, with machines
similar to slot machines,
can be found all over Japan, operated by private companies. T e market is estimated to be worth
9 trillion yen (MOP900 billion), of which pachinko accounts for 2 trillion
yen, Mr Mihara says. “But we antici- pate that we can attract a bigger mar- ket,” he adds, creating an alternative to Macau as a regional gaming hub. He says Japanese have both suffi -
cient disposable income and the sheer numbers needed to make the gaming industry successful in Japan. Tokyo alone is home to more than 12 million people. Besides, the country is well connected to the mainland, Mongo- lia and Southeast Asia, which would make it easy to attract players from overseas. T e legalisation of casinos in Japan
seems inevitable. In the meantime, the media is fi lled with reports of the Yakuza organised crime gangs run- ning illegal casinos and mahjong par- lours where real money is on off er.
A pachinko parlour 78
Photo: Michael Maggs
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