MGM Looks to Japan
21st June 2018
One of the world’s mega companies MGM has decided to turn its attention to the Asian gambling market by announcing the construction of a new MGM casino resort in Japan, hot in the heels of its successful operation in Macau. Asia is one of the hotspots of the world for development with casinos from Laos (the Savan Resorts Casino), to the Philippines to Cambodia. MGM now has two casinos operating in the region.
Japan has recently opened up the country as a potentially massive gambling hub for people who want to play roulette, blackjack or slots after developing a new law, still under progress through parliament, which effectively ended the ban on casino gambling, through the loophole of the new Integrated Resort Promotion Law, which means that casinos can be built as part of integrated leisure facilities in a resort.
Never slow to pick up on a money making market, MGM, the second biggest global casino company by revenue, is getting busy planning a state of the art casino in the country.
Big Market Out East
Hopes are high for the potential of the Japanese casino market which the CEO of MGM has stated could be twice as large as that in Singapore or even Vegas- kerching! They’ll be stocking more than Bauernroulette games tables at that resort if that is the case…..
The whole region is reviewing and upgrading its gambling industry to meet the formidable challenge created by this significant change of the Japanese gaming law.
MGM are apparently working hard with local partners to design an integrated casino resort to boost the economy and create the hottest ticket in terms of where to gamble in Asia.
Macau vs Japan
Whilst Macau is a place that caters well for the many high rollers who make it their destination who have the pick of hotels like the Four Seasons Macao, it’s understood that the MGM Japan sees its future in appealing to large numbers of regular gamblers to bring home the bacon and deliver a seriously bright future for gaming in the country.
The newly opened MGM Cotai, which cost the company an incredible US$3.4 billion to create, is being seen as a potential model for the new MGM resort in Japan.
Expectations are that it is likely to amass its big bucks from the casino, although the resort will offer much more to the public and users.
Ideas so far include local restaurants, exciting public spaces, and to reach the all-important resort entertainment requirements a theatre.
The figure of one trillion yen is being publicly discussed in relation to the planned MGM Japan, an investment that surely underlines the potential value of the Japanese market. The idea for a resort completion date has been said to be somewhere in the region of 2025.
Pachinko Schaminko
The Japanese have had a long love affair with the traditional game of pachinko which to outsiders might seem like a gambling game. Thanks to the game’s long cultural history it managed to dodge the ban. The population are crackers about the game which is a little like pin ball, and whole Pachinko Parlours are peppered around the country with their familiar musical tones to meet the booming local demand for gaming.
While the buzz around the future of gaming in Japan has reached fever pitch, it will still be some time until it becomes clear exactly how MGM will take its vision forward and how this mega business will learn how to work with local partners to build the casino of the future in the Land of the Rising Sun.