Your Daily Asia Gaming eBrief: Japan’s creepingly slow progress: Daniel Cheng (Sabong News)

Good morning. PH Resorts, developer of the Emerald Bay resort in Cebu is looking to attract Japan VIP players after signing an . It makes sense, as Japan was the fourth biggest tourism market in the Philippines in 2019, behind Korea and China. This could prove opportune, as in his face-to-face interview with Asia Gaming Brief’s Sharon Singleton. Illustrating this point, the Wakayama IR Promotion Council has been urging the prefectural government since last weekend to . They’ve been dragging their feet since autumn of 2020. Finally, we take a look at Star’s latest trading update, where , strength in QLD and how it feels about competition with Crown Sydney. First, the news What you need to know PH Resorts, which is developing the Emerald Bay resort on Cebu, has The company, a unit of Udenna Group, has signed a letter of intent with ASKI Japan, which provides junket and VIP services for Japanese players in Asia.Japan was the Philippines fourth-biggest tourism market in 2019, attracting 682,788 tourists, up just over 8 percent from the prior year. Koreans still top the arrivals tables at 1.98 million, but before the pandemic China was catching up and showing faster growth. Australian casino operator Star Entertainment said its gross gambling revenue was up 37 percent year-on-year in the five months from January to May, highlighting the resilience of Australia’s domestic market.JP Morgan analyst Don Carducci said the recent trading update has Speaking to inventors, Star CEO Matt Bekier said he was not too concerned about the recent stall in China-Australia trade talks. A general meeting of the Wakayama IR Promotion Council held last weekend passed a resolution urging the prefectural government to make its decision on an IR operator partner as soon as possible.Although not made explicit, among the two candidate operators – the Suncity Group and the Clairvest Group – the former seems to be preferred by the council.The prefectural , in spite of the fact that the selection committee has been in place for over a year. Originally the decision was to be made in the autumn of 2020. FACE TO FACE: Daniel Cheng With so much room for development in the Asian markets, Pragmatic Play isn’t resting on its laurels. The increasing acceptance of igaming has seen a slow change in attitude towards regulation, with more and , which will truly propel the market to a period of hypergrowth – something Pragmatic Play intends to be at the forefront of. In | | |