Japan: all our coverage

The Stockholm-listed affiliate will pay the sellers of a Japan-focused business it bought for €2.0 million in 2019 about 40% of what it still owed them, mostly with a Bank of Valletta loan. Before the news the market valued the whole company at about a quarter of the old bill; the deal still waits on the bank.

A casino applicant that studied the 10-hectare integrated resort plot at Colombo Port City has walked away during due diligence, officials told Sri Lanka's Parliament. Nobody has yet shown who stood behind it, and the casino rules any successor would need are still not in place.

Japan's tourism ministry says the Osaka integrated resort still meets the required standards, but for a third year it finds the demand forecasts have only been checked, not reworked. Those forecasts still promise 20 million visitors a year, while the planned initial investment has risen by 40% since the plan was first filed.

France's gambling regulator has broken its 2025 online sports betting figures down by sport and found growth built on more matches, a 24-hour live offer and operators steering payouts to the 85% cap. The sharper finding is who bets on the obscure end of the menu: mostly players its own algorithm flags as excessive.

Aichi says it received participation statements for its airport island integrated resort by the 30 September deadline and wants full proposals by 23 March 2027. It will not say who applied or how many, so Japan's most advanced second-round bid may have a contest or a single suitor.

A former coal-mining town in Fukuoka says it will hand the prefecture an integrated resort proposal this month and wants the prefectural assembly to take it up in December. Under Japan's IR law the town cannot apply itself, and the prefecture has not said it will.

Seven candidates filed on Sunday for the 18 October election to replace Takeharu Yamanaka, and Yamanaka is one of them. The frontrunner, backed by four ruling and opposition parties, has ruled out an integrated resort, and the others oppose one, seven months before Japan opens applications for its two remaining licences.

Paradise Co's four foreigner-only casinos took more in the third quarter than in any quarter before it, even though customers bought fewer chips than in the second. Grand Korea Leisure recovered in September, but its quarter was barely ahead of last year's.

Korean casino operators can now borrow from the state tourism fund to build or expand, not just to cover running costs. The loans arrive as the government moves to raise the casino levy ceiling by half and make licences renewable every five years, and the industry is asking whether the carrot comes before the stick.

Takeharu Yamanaka won in 2021 on a platform of killing the city's integrated resort bid, and did. He has now stepped down over a workplace harassment finding, weeks before a special election, in a country whose prime minister supports a second round of casino licensing and whose tourism agency will take applications from May 2027.

Casino revenue fell 11.3% year on year. The drop, which is what customers actually handed over, rose 7.2%. The whole decline is hold, not demand.

This week, the industry's simmering rivalries boiled over in spectacular fashion. Forget quarterly earnings; we're talking about lawsuits, corporate

Japan's first female PM Sanae Takaichi directs ministry to promote Japan IR policy. LDP-Ishin coalition signals push for second Japan casino license round.

Sanae Takaichi becomes Japan's first female PM. New LDP-Ishin coalition strengthens Japan IR policy, backing MGM Osaka & second Japan casino license round.

1spin4win, a classic online slot provider, earned Casino Title of the Year for its distinctive Japanese-themed title, Tiger’s Steps Hold and Win, at the

This week felt like a tale of two industries. In one, we saw colossal, forward-looking investments designed to conquer the next frontier. In the other, we saw

Authorities in Japan have wasted no time in enforcing a tough new law designed to cripple the promotion of illegal gambling, making their first high-profile

Hokkaido, once considered a frontrunner to host one of Japan's first large-scale casino resorts, is formally re-evaluating its position. The prefectural

The global online poker market has evolved beyond its niche origins, reaching a turnover of $5.3 billion in 2024 and projected to more than double to $11.4

Japan’s Parliament has significantly intensified its efforts against illegal online gambling by approving a bill that explicitly bans advertising of overseas

Japanese authorities have dismantled a large-scale illegal online gambling network suspected of handling over JPY 90 billion (approximately US$628.5 million)

Japan’s House of Representatives has approved a legislative revision aimed at significantly tightening controls on illegal online gambling. The lower chamber

As Thailand considers legalising casino resorts, MGM Resorts International, a major US gaming giant, is advising lawmakers on key conditions for its potential