The Japanese Lottery Faces Coming Casino Competition

The popularity of the Japanese lottery is undeniable with millions of Japanese partaking in this minor form of gambling that is as old as Mount Fuji and a widespread global tradition, however now parliament has legalized casino gambling in Japan, are the boom days of the Japanese lottery behind it?

3 Types Of Japanese Lottery

• 1. Unique Numbers
• 2. Selected Numbers
• 3. Scratch Cards
• Tickets 100-500 Yen
• 100 million Yen prizes

The major shift in Japanese gambling laws that allowed for legal casino gambling in the nation were a long time coming. The popularity of gambling, much of it lamentably illegal, has been manifest and obvious for many years, and much of the revenue derived from it has fallen into the hands of criminal gangs or, worse, to foreign destinations such as Macau or Las Vegas, with perhaps the obvious exception being the Japanese lottery that alongside horse racing has alone had the cloak of legality.

Casino resorts hitting Japan maybe a few years off, these massive capital investments, however well planned in massive detail, still need to be constructed, but in the meantime more traditional gambling outlets, like the Japanese lottery, face only a short time to prepare before they have to step up their game to compete for revenue with flashy new facilities and the huge publicity campaign that will come with their opening. But just how many ordinary Japanese will eschew their weekly Japanese lottery flutter?

Japanese Lottery Faces Competition From Bet365 & Resort Casinos

Naturally the Japanese government wouldn’t mind if it were none at all. They gain revenue already from the Japanese lottery, horse racing and some motor-sports, the casino revenues shouldn’t just replace these but add to them and that means overseas gamblers. The attraction of Japan to gamblers in the region, particularly those from China, still awash with Xi Jinping and his crackdown on access to Macau and the junket companies that facilitated it, is obvious, but with regional competition, will it be enough?

The costs of the tsunami that created the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which alone has cost $188 billion, has been a drain on the Japanese economy and the state can ill afford to lose revenue to the profit margins of casino operators, be they in the new resorts or online in the form of Bet365 and it’s competitors, so the Japanese lottery revenues and those derived from those that like to bet on sports in Japan where permitted, are going to be a good indicator of whether legalizing casinos in Japan was a good move or not.

The Big Guns Roll Up To Attract Chinese Whales To Japan

As the big players move in, Sheldon Adelson one of the first to announce his resort might cost up to $10 billion just to construct, they’re quick to try and allay the suspicions and reticence of the local communities. They promise theatres and restaurants, cinemas and bowling alleys, a facility to be enjoyed by all the family, but one wonders just how hollow these promises might transpire to be if the Japanese Lottery, which funds numerous local projects and programmes, starts to lose out to these interloping pleasure palaces.

Of course not all the developments will come from overseas investors, the gaming market profits are clearly there, and local entertainment providers are already seeking to develop their own local businesses in that direction. It is likely these will be the competition for the Japanese lottery, the massive international resorts sucking up the foreign visitors leaving these smaller locations to attract a domestic patronage, and that may well see lottery revenues dip, and the government coffers of Shinzo Abe not fill as fast as they’re currently predicting.