The Japanese government is on the brink of passing the IR Implementation Act, though the bill remains deeply unpopular with the majority of the population and sooner or later this will have practical consequences for the industry.
The passage of the act represents the culmination of almost two decades of lobbying efforts by the advocates of legalized casino gambling. However, the reality is that casinos have become legal in Japan due mainly to the authoritarian and non-democratic strains in the Japanese political system.
The conservative and right-wing politicians who wish to write Japanese war crimes out of the history books, or who bristle at the establishment of monuments to wartime Comfort Women, are also the ones who pushed the hardest for the legalization of domestic casinos.
The pro-casino movement in Japan was effectively launched in 1999 by former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, an outspoken nationalist hawk.
Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it...
This Dossier results from the “Life After POGOs” editorial project by Asia Gaming Brief which culminated with a pop-up digital forum on 9th December to discuss potentials ramifications in the industry.
Covid-19 forced the rapid and unexpected closure of venues across Australia, changing the operating environment with unprecedented speed and leaving managers scrambling to adapt...
Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced the opening of the 1,600-room Grand Hyatt Jeju in South Korea, the largest Hyatt hotel in Asia Pacific. This hotel is part of the Jeju Dream Tower which opened on Friday.
Galaxy Entertainment Group told Macau News Agency that recent wage dispute involving workers employed at its Cotai expansion projects, originated from fee disputes between the workers and mainland employment agencies.
MGM Resorts has thrown its cards into the online gaming ring, with an attempt to buy U.K.-listed Entertain for GBP11.3 billion ($15.4 billion), which may reshape the group and reduce its focus on Asia in the longer term.
Over the years, many of the answers have been remarkably prescient in their forecasts for the near-term direction of Asia’s gaming industry. However, we can safely say that no one came anywhere close to guessing
what 2020 may have had in store.
While nowhere in the world has escaped the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Macau has been hit harder than most, with forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink more than 50 percent this year.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region was at a record high, on track to welcome 80 million visitors in 2019, generating some $90 billion in revenue.