Japan Decides Not To Impose Taxes On Foreign Gamblers Wins

Japan legalized gambling in late 2016 but is yet to issue any casino license as the process to formulate rules and regulations to govern the casino industry has taken over four years. Japan is still debating a number of gaming regulations as they want to ensure they get everything right from the start.

Japan has studied a number of gambling markets including Macau and Singapore to finalize its regulatory framework. The draft gaming regulation had earlier proposed to impose a gaming tax on the winnings of overseas players. Akira Amari who is the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on the Tax System said in November that they were considering removing this tax rule.

Earlier this week, Amari confirmed that legislators had decided to drop this rule and not collect any taxes on the winnings of foreign players. Amari said that they made the decision as they did not want to scare away overseas players from coming and play at Japan’s casinos.

Amari said that it was no point building multi-billion dollar casino resorts and then making it difficult for overseas players to come and enjoy their gaming experience in Japan. Japanese legislators are keen to make their casinos as attractive as possible and in line with the the top casino resorts in the world.

Casino Licenses From October 2021

Japan will initially start out with three integrated casino resorts that will bring in billions of dollars in investment. The government is expected to start the licensing process for these three casinos on October 1, 2021 if all goes as per plan.

The license application process initially expected to commence from Jan 4, 2021 and finish on July 30, 2021. However, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted all of those plans and Japanese legislators had to push back the licensing date till October 1. Those interested in applying for a Japanese casino license will have time till April 28, 2022 to do so.

The proposal to do away with the casino tax on winnings will be included in the tax reform package for 2021. The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition group will present this package on December 10 for review.

Japanese lawmakers will review the same and see if this proposal will also ensure transparency when it comes to deposits and withdrawals of overseas gamblers as Japan wants to ensure that there is no room given for money laundering activities.