Foreign gaming firms that win the three integrated casino resort licenses being put up for grabs in Japan could face problems in hiring the thousands of employees such venues would require due to the nation currently having ‘very low unemployment.’

Employment triumph:

According to a report, this is the opinion of multinational financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, and comes in the wake of the government’s release of official figures showing that the country’s overall unemployment rate for March had remained unchanged year-on-year at around 2.5%.

Concerning consideration:

Morgan Stanley reportedly came to its conclusion after several of its analysts attended last week’s Japan Gaming Congress in Tokyo where they had held discussions with representatives from some of the firms hoping to secure one of the three integrated casino resort licenses. It declared that the current rate of unemployment in the nation of just over 126.4 million people is ‘a major concern’ as it could present such operators ‘with a skilled labor shortage.’

GGRAsia reported that the financial services group also cited Chris Gordon (pictured), President for the Wynn Resorts Development LLC subsidiary of American casino giant, Wynn Resorts Limited, as declaring that it will be a ‘daunting task’ for his firm to hire the ‘between 11,000 and 16,000 new employees’ it will need if it wins a Japanese casino license.

Viable solutions:

But, Morgan Stanley moreover noted that some of this shortfall could be assuaged by automating some consumer-facing and workplace tasks alongside ‘higher female participation in the workforce.’

Reportedly read a statement from Stanley…

“Operators were also encouraged by recent steps by the government on imported labor with the enactment of a new bill in December to attract more than 345,000 foreign blue-collar workers over the next five years.”

Critical competition:

The firm stated that it was ‘concerned about returns’ owing to the increasingly competitive nature of those bidding for the right to bring an integrated casino resort to Japan. It explained that all of the potential operators it spoke with are hoping to build a facility featuring more than 1.08 million sq ft of hotel space as well as exhibition areas able to accommodate a minimum of 3,000 people.

In another statement from the firm…

“All the operators we met with suggested they would spend more than $10 billion in Osaka, Tokyo or Yokohama while even potential regional developers suggested they would spend $2.5 billion to $3 billion to give the government what it wants. Given the competition and inflation, we are worried development prices are getting bid up and are diminishing returns.”

Promising potential:

However, despite expressing its belief that some ‘key questions’ have so far remained ‘unanswered,’ the financial services firm did reportedly forecast that Japan’s expected trio of integrated casino resorts could eventually bring in aggregated gaming revenues of approximately $15 billion every year, which would be ‘more than double Singapore or Las Vegas.’