With pachinko already representing a $30 billion industry, casino operators are right to think Japan is ripe for their product. But Forbes‘ 
Muhammad Cohen thinks Macao casino owners (well, technically you can’t “own” a casino in Macao, but we digress …) may be at a distinct disadvantage, news that won’t be welcomed by Sheldon Adelson or Lawrence Ho, for starters. All six Macanese concessionaires have set up satellite offices in Japan, although they’re keeping their footprint light: no more than a dozen staffers at most. According to Cohen, “the industry’s hottest unattached executive,” former Melco Resorts & Entertainment COO Ted Chan is now heading Galaxy Entertainment‘s push.
Casino owners would face stiff public opposition: Two-thirds of the Japanese public says it opposes the resorts, though some doubt the firmness of the sentiment. Also, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is steering casino-implementation through the Diet by dint of a very patchwork coalition. And maybe would-be operators should be lobbying the Diet less and the public more. Spectrum Gaming Group‘s Frederick Gushin, who is not given to mincing words, says “It is concerning that those advocating integrated resorts have not spent the same efforts on building public support.”
So what’s the stumbling block? “Japan prefers to pretend that expanding foreign tourist numbers won’t mean vastly increased Chinese visitors,” Cohen writes. The government has set future visitation goals 
that are predicated on keeping the percentage of Chinese tourists the same and growing other markets. “[N]ever mind that would require half the combined population of Hong Kong and Taiwan paying a visit.” Cohen concludes by noting that homeboys Universal and Sega Sammy are learning the casino biz through operations in the Philippines and South Korea, respectively. If only three licenses are issued, those two companies could easily snare two of them, leaving a lot of Chinese and American executives on the outside looking in.
* Legislation to move into the 21st century by allowing land-based casinos in Louisiana squeaked through the Legislature by one vote. That may be a small margin but it’s a big difference for the Bayou State’s poker industry.
