This was advised by the Office of Integrated Resort Regime Promotion, which is working closely with the government to determine the best way to introduce casino resorts to the country.
The officials’ viewpoint was revealed during a meeting of the panel of experts advising the IR Promotion Secretariat, chaired by Professor Hirotaka Yamauchi of Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University, informed GGRAsia. During the meeting, no details were given regarding the reasons to support the potential exclusion of junkets from Japanese casino market, although the issues of the financial role of junkets in casino business were mentioned.
The use of VIP junket operators would not be allowed in the Japanese casino industry, although the government must still determine what will be consider junket in Japan. Looking at Macau’s industry, junket operators are companies that promote casinos to potential VIP customers. They are also known to be collecting and granting credits for such customers to use for gaming purposes. In the case of Macau, these operations have been severely criticised for being apparently linked to illicit activities.
Japan is looking at casino markets such as Nevada and Singapore to establish the bases of its own legislation. This would open the doors for the country to introduce Singapore-style ‘player agents, which would replace the junkets in the role of middleman between casinos and VIP gamblers.