MAR 14 DE MAYO DE 2024 - 11:19hs.
It already runs a non-gaming IR in S. Korea

Sega Sammy bets on future Japanese casino market

The chairman of pachinko machine maker and casino investor Sega Sammy Holdings has outlined the group’s ambitions to enter the casino resort sector in its home market of Japan. “We expect integrated resorts in Japan to become a mainstay of this business segment,” stated Hajime Satomi, groups’s chairman and chief executive.

"We will develop the resort business, which is at the prior investment stage, into a driver of long-term growth,” also commented Satomi in a business update titled "Integrated Report 2017”.

Casino industry consultancy Global Market Advisors outlined in a memo following Japan’s snap parliamentary election held on October 22, a possible timetable for the legislative process still required in order to realise a casino industry in that country.

It included a bill to address problem gambling, perhaps as early as this year during an extraordinary session of parliament possibly commencing in early November. That legislation would be followed in likelihood next year by the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Bill, said GMA. The latter piece of legislation would provide a framework for the industry.

"If an IR Implementation Bill is enacted, the government will advance to the stage of area and operator selection, who will then be able to prepare concrete plans,” stated Satomi.

Referring first to a Japanese non-gaming resort Sega Sammy currently runs in Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyushu Island in the south of the country, the chairman added: "The group is accumulating expertise in the development and administration of integrated resorts through Phoenix Seagaia Resort and a joint venture in South Korea with the Paradise Group.”

Source: GMB / GGR Asia