Japan’s Cabinet approves casino resorts standards

The Cabinet approved today standards that state big-scale hotels are a requirement for casino resorts.

Japan.- Japan’s Cabinet approved earlier today standards for casino resorts, which require them to be built with big-scale hotels, far larger than currently exist in the country. Conference rooms and exhibition halls are also requirements for the integrated resorts (IR).

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a government meeting before the Cabinet’s approval that the country will aim for casino resorts of “unprecedentedly large scale and high quality”. The government aims to have three integrated resorts open at three locations by mid-2020s.

The facilities will feature hotels, conference rooms and shopping facilities. While the average-sized Japanese guest room features 50 square meters, a hotel with a casino would necessitate 2,000 rooms, exceeding the average 1,500 at three big Tokyo hotels.

In regards to conference rooms and exhibition sites, operators would need to meet one of three combined criteria. These include a convention center that accommodates 3,000 people with a 60,000 square meter exhibition space. The maximum casino floor space should be 3% of the total space for the integrated resort.

Furthermore, the standards establish that casino ads can only be at international terminals of airports and seaports. The government will also set up a newly state casino management commission, which will detail operation rules.