The Japanese Diet will reveal details on the Integrated Resorts Implementation and announce a public consultation period no earlier than August, casino news outlet GGRAsia reported earlier today, citing an unnamed participant in the ongoing legislative discussions.
It was in April when a specially assembled unit, comprised of top Japanese lawmakers and led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, began work on a second piece of legislation that would set the regulations under which Japan’s casino industry will be governed.
It has previously been reported that legislators will try to pass the Implementation Bill by the end of the year and during an extraordinary Diet session, which is likely to begin sometime this fall.
At a Wednesday meeting, Japanese lawmakers discussed the basis for the regulation of the country’s future casinos, the regulations under which casino licenses will be granted, checks that interested casino developers will have to undergo in order to be deemed eligible for licenses, and a number of other related topics.
The Integrated Resorts Promotion Bill, a legislative piece that was passed by the Diet last December, provides for the construction of up to two casino resorts in metropolitan areas across Japan. Legislators will have to select the preferred locations for the properties and whom they would be built by during the ongoing second stage of the casino legalization process.
According to media reports from Wednesday, the task force named to craft Japan’s second casino bill has been looking at Nevada and Singapore’s gambling regulations so as to be able to design a regulatory system that will work well enough in Japan and will protect all participants in the industry in an equally effective manner. Industry experts had formerly suggested that Singapore and its casino regulatory model would be used by Japanese officials when developing the country’s own casino laws.
Wednesday discussions were also centered around the way Japan’s integrated resorts would be operated, that is whether by one entity or multiple investors and if operated by multiple investors, whether these should form a joint venture.
Prognoses about the lucrativeness of Japan’s casino market have drawn the attention of some of the world’s most popular integrated resort developers, including Las Vegas Sands, Hard Rock International, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, and many more. Almost all of the companies to have expressed interest in bidding for Japan’s casino licenses, when the call for those is announced, have made it clear that they are ready to invest billions of dollars in building high end resorts with diverse gambling and non-gambling offering.
