According to the experts’ reports, the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing gambling market in the world. Generally, the market tends to increase either gambling revenues or the spread of legalization. In this article, let’s have a look at the major countries in the Asia-Pacific gambling market.
China
Gambling in China is mostly illegal and residents can play the lottery as the only gambling activity in this country. Other gambling activities, such as betting, are only held in Hong Kong and Macau.
In Hong Kong, six legalized gambling establishments offer four types of gambling, including lottery, mahjong, racing betting, and football betting.
In Macau, there are more than thirty legalized gambling establishments, offering a wide variety of gambling activities, including sports betting; casino board games (roulette, craps, card games, etc.); gaming machines (video poker, video slots, etc); and lotteries.
Macau is widely known as Las Vegas of Asia since its casinos gain an annual income of over thirty billion USD, which is even much higher than the income from Las Vegas’ casinos. One of the key features that make Macau a favorite among gamblers is the absence of a tax on winnings.
Japan
Gambling in Japan is regulated with the government having approved the legalization and regulation of three integrated resorts to be the first casinos in the country. Although the cities where the casinos will be located aren’t revealed, it is predicted that theywould be Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama.
The Japanese gambling market is estimated at sixteen billion USD, which is much more than in Las Vegas but less than in Macau of China. Therefore, Japan is the world’s second largest gambling market.
In Japan, some types of gambling are already regulated. For example, lottery tickets are issued by municipal bodies, and several racing betting are controlled by the government or municipal bodies.
South Korea
In South Korea, gambling is oriented only to foreign travelers. Kangwon Land Casino is currently the only Korean gambling establishment that allows the country’s citizens to play casino games. Although it takes about three hours to drive the car from Seoul to get to this place, local citizens don’t find it hard, so the casino is full of people every day.
Since the government try their best to avoid gambling-related problems, the country’s citizens are not allowed to enter the other gambling establishments, which are working to serve foreigners only. Therefore, most gamblers in South Korea come from China, Japan, and some other surrounding countries.
Other countries
Although China is considered the largest gambling market in Asia-Pacific, there are also new opportunities for casino operators in other countries in the region, such as Singapore, The Philippines, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Australia. In addition, there are several popular Asian online casinos that are worth trying out.
At the present, the casino gaming industry still keeps growing and developing very fast in Asia-Pacific. There is no doubt to say that Asia-Pacific is the leading region in the gambling world. And as a result, we can forecast that a large number of game developers and casino operators will try to take part in the Asia-Pacific market.
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