The prospect of regulated online casinos in Japan is “still very far away,” said Joji Kokuryo, general manager of Japan-based gaming firm Bay City Ventures, in a recent interview with Asia Gaming Brief.
Kokuryo said Japanese law enforcement has reiterated that “unregulated online gambling is illegal,” and Prime Minister Kishida stated last year that “online casinos are indeed against the law.”
As the country moves toward its first legal integrated resorts (IRs) with casinos, a process delayed several years by the Covid-19 pandemic, “there are some short-term options with varying levels of effects such as geo-blocking popular sites or clamping down on money transfer services that could help to mitigate the number of users,” said Kokuryo, who spoke on the sidelines of the ASEAN Gaming Summit in Manila in March.
“However, it is still up for debate what long-term actions will be implemented and to what extent will unregulated online site users be charged with the current maximum fine of JPY500,000 (US$3,825) for first-time offenders.”
As for those slow-moving IR plans—the outcome of the license bidding was supposed to have been announced last year—Kokuryo told AGB that currently the Japanese central government hasn’t yet decided whether to approve IR plans for Osaka and Nagasaki. A decision was expected by the end of last year, but the deadline came and went with no new information. Despite that, Joji notes that “we are clearly reaching a point where other non-IR related issues have come to the forefront.
“The longer the current two applications from Osaka and Nagasaki are being evaluated, the more issues we will see pop up. There will be more elections that could swing the IR policies in the local election.”
And the more the licensing process drags on, the greater the chance that interested operators may become disillusioned. “The current length of evaluation at the national level is not doing any favors for these Japanese markets to generate excitement or momentum for operator and investor interest,” Kokuryo said.
As for iGaming, he added, “The usage of omnichannel operations involving betting apps, streaming feeds, dedicated media marketing and various ways to easily charge accounts has led to the revival of some of the government-run gaming revenues such as sports lottery, motorcycle and bicycle racing.”
