JAPAN – Pachinko and racing industries banned from IRs
Future casinos are likely to include only table games and slot machines
A paragraph on page 10 of the 46-page draft of the IR Basic Plan answers one of the pending questions that has lingered in regard to Japanese IR regulation—pachinko and the public gambling industries such as horse racing and bicycle racing will be entirely banned from the grounds of Japanese IRs.
The draft document says that, “Because there is a possibility that measures to prevent gambling addiction may lose effectiveness by joining them with casinos, facilities for pachinko and races under public management will not be permitted to be installed on IR grounds.”
Potentially, this regulation might hamper the prospects for companies directly involved in the pachinko industry to participate in IR development, and it also certainly means that notions such as placing off-track betting facilities at Japanese IRs are now off the table.
Future casinos in Japan are likely to include only table games and slot machines, although these will be in the more cutting-edge form that may include facial recognition and other technology for EGMs.
