Japan requires casino resorts to have big hotels

The government has set standards for casino resorts to be built in the country by the mid-2020’s.

Japan.- Japan’s lawmakers have been discussing possibilities to set casino regulations for years, and on Friday the government finally unveiled new standards to set for casino resorts to be built by the mid-2020s, requiring them to have hotels and conference rooms bigger than those that already existing in the country. Cabinet approval is expected to come at the end of the month.

These standards make it clear that Japan is trying to compete with other regional rivals, such as Macau and South Korea, as large-scale requirements – such as hotels with more than 100.k square meters for guest rooms – would need big investments from local governments and oeprators.

If the average size of a guest room in Japan is 50 square meters, a hotel would need 2,000 rooms, exceeding by at least 500 rooms the largest hotels in the country, Mainichi revealed. Other requirements establish that exhibition halls would have at least 120k square meters, surpassing Tokyo Big Site, currently the largest conference space in Japan with 95k square meters.

As previously reported, the maximum space for casinos should be set at a 3% of the total space of each integrated resort, while advertising outside the integrated resort would also be limited to airports with foreign flights and terminals at ports.