By the time Japan’s first integrated resort opens – even before the first hand of blackjack is dealt – the market will have in place programs to address and combat problem gambling issues.
What’s unique, according to former MGM Resorts International executive Alan Feldman, is that Japanese gambling researchers, psychologists, and scholars are already addressing the issue well before the infrastructure is in place for what is expected to be the world’s second-largest gambling market.
Alan Feldman
“The research is being done now,” said Feldman, who is still consulting with MGM Resorts on the company’s efforts to land an integrated resort in Osaka. “It’s not just a discussion topic. The collaboration is happening now.”
Feldman, who joined UNLV’s International Gaming Institute as a Distinguished Fellow in Responsible Gaming this month, moderated one of two panel discussions on the burgeoning Japanese casino market at the Gambling & Risk Taking Conference Tuesday at Caesars Palace. The gaming institute produces the conference, which is held every three years.
Japanese leaders last July approved legislation for three integrated resort licenses. Feldman said Japan is already home to an entertainment industry worth $20 billion, and gaming analysts have estimated three Japanese casinos could produce up to $20 billion a year in gaming revenues, which would make the market second only to Macau.
Gambling, however, is just going to be one component of the planned integrated resorts developments, which are expected to include luxury hotels, restaurants, meetings and convention space and other entertainment amenities.
Most of the U.S. gaming industry’s largest casino operators – MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment – are expected to bid on the market, as well as international casino giants like Malaysia’s Genting and Hong Kong’s Galaxy Entertainment.
Tatsuro Tanoka, of the Osaka University of Commerce, displayed a bar graph chart showing that non-gaming revenues have grown to more than 65 percent of total revenues produced by Las Vegas Strip resorts.
“Japan wants the Vegas model, but we want 70 percent (non-gaming revenues),” he said.
The next step in the process is the creation of a gaming regulatory structure, which could be complete by either the end of this year or early 2020. Afterward, the bidding process will be created. Most Japan gaming watchers believe the first integrated resort will likely open in 2025 in Osaka in an area that will house the World Expo that same year.
Feldman, who serves as chairman of both the National Center for Responsible Gaming and the Nevada Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling, said its gratifying to see Japan embracing the issue well ahead of the market’s opening.
Gaming is not foreign to Japan. The county has a national lottery, allows wagering on racing-related competitions, and has a healthy pachinko industry with more than 9,200 locations – some of which resemble casinos – housing almost 4 billion gambling machines.
Japanese gambling researchers participating on the panel, and speaking through an interpreter, said pachinko – which look like vertical pinball machines and players try to win as many balls as possible – have caused some problem gambling issues in the country.
Feldman said that, when MGM and other gaming companies first visited Japan seven years ago, Japanese leaders denied there was an issue with problem gambling.
“Japan has had gambling for hundreds of years, and all the U.S.-based companies agreed to hit this head on,” Feldman said.
James Whelan, a professor of clinical health and director of psychological services at the University of Memphis, was involved in some of the initial problem gambling studies in Japan on behalf of Caesars, then known as Harrah’s Entertainment.
He said the various gambling aspects in Japan were viewed differently, with pachinko’s image being characterized as “only about money, messy and smoky” and as a potential gateway to addiction. He also said addiction was “not well understood” and was stigmatized.
Feldman said the efforts to address problem gambling in Japan have been “collaborative.”
“A lot of what is going on in Japan mirrors other parts of the world, but there are distinct differences,” he said.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
