Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN JUL 2020 22 Las Vegas Sands insists it remains opposed to online gambling, including in jurisdictions in which it operates in Asia. ラスベガス・サンズは、営業を行うアジアの法域を含め、オンラインギャンブルに反対の姿勢を維持すると主張している COVER STORY SOUL KILLING Safety and social distancing proposals, including plastic dividers around tables and between machines, hardly suggest rapid revenue recovery. “When you take the social nature out of a casino, you are taking away its soul,” Global Market Advisors Partner John English says. Gaming tables are likely to be reduced to three or four seats with alternate gaming machines and terminals deactivated. “They’re cutting operators’ GGR in half,” FootballBet.com President and CEO David Leppo says. “Until there’s a vaccine, if governments want to get back to pre-COVID-19 numbers, regulators are going to have to offer the customer online.” Many businesses and regulators have viewed online options as “the wave of the future,” Leppo says. “Well, the future got plopped in our laps three months ago.” Without online gaming, there’s no lifeline to support casino payrolls and no alternative revenue source for governments that are, in most cases, seeing expenditures soar while tax collections across the board plummet. HIDE OR SEEK Operators and officials may find online gaming a compelling option to counter the revenue drought, especially since it’s estimated Asian players annually lose some US$50 billion online, with the vast majority of play unregulated and untaxed by the countries whose citizens place the bets. “In Asia, governments have to make a decision: do they want to regulate this thing?” London based Tottenham & Co Managing Director Andrew Tottenham says. “The government can say: My citizens are gambling. I can either ban it and work with banks to stop it, block IP addresses, block payments. Or we can regulate it and make sure it’s fair.”