For months, Japanese politicians have been making plans to open up casino resorts across the country in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Australian casino mogul James Packer has set his sights on the opportunity from the beginning, but now there are concerns that the Japanese government will not end up legalising casinos.
According to Reuters, development costs and Tokyo’s local government are holding back the country’s gambling plans. This could mean bad news for many operators who have already raised their hopes of being able to open a casino a new and very lucrative gambling market. While former governors of Tokyo supported the casino, Yoichi Masuzoe is not particularly keen on the idea.
He has stated that it is not at the top of his agenda at the moment. He has already relegated many members of the team who were working on preparations for the casino. According to other government officials, he is already overwhelmed with preparing for the 2020 Olympics, and building a casino at this time would only complicate everything. Another concern is development costs.
After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, construction costs are at an all-time high in Japan. Many developers are scaling back on their projects, and there are even concerns that the Olympics may have to cut back due to ever increasing construction costs. "The reality is that preparations for the Olympics are going to be pretty challenging.
Casinos are secondary," says Satoshi Okabe, a representative of the tourism and resort industry in Japan. "Building costs are going to spike and foreign casino operators are going to find investment returns inefficient.” However, some politicians are still positive about the casino legislation. Koichi Hagiuda, who is part of the prime minister’s group supporting the casino bill, is confident that it will be successful.
Next month, the bill is up for house approval, and he believes that it will pass.
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