Macau-based casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd – also known as GEG – announced on Monday a scheme to bring to Macau groups of Japanese university students, for them to learn more about integrated resort management.
The scheme – dubbed “GEG Japan-Macau Integrated Resort Management Mentorship Pilot Scheme” – is jointly organised by Galaxy Entertainment, Galaxy Entertainment Group Foundation and Japan’s Toyo University, and supported by the University of Macau.
A first group of students from the Faculty of International Tourism Studies at Toyo University in Tokyo is poised to visit Macau under the programme, for a total of four weeks in August. They will attend lectures provided by faculty members of the International Integrated Resort Management Programme at University of Macau, and mentoring sessions conducted by Galaxy Entertainment executives across a wide variety of topics.
“This first ‘class of 2018’ will be one of many groups of students that Galaxy Entertainment plans to host in Macau as it evolves the scheme to include other tertiary institutions across Japan in the years to come,” said the firm in a press release.
Presented as “the first of its kind”, the programme has been “designed to support academic institutions and their undergraduate students in Japan to learn about integrated resort management as this new industry prepares to be introduced to the Japan market.”
Japan’s parliament passed on July 20 the long-awaited Integrated Resort (IR) Implementation Bill, a second of two pieces of legislation that will lead to the establishment of a domestic casino industry. A number of industry executives expect the first casino licences to be issued in around the year 2020, with the first resorts to open for operation in circa 2025.
“We recognise that Macau, and Galaxy Entertainment, have both the vision and an opportunity to share its formula for success with Japan as it embarks on the path of integrated resort implementation,” stated Francis Lui Yiu Tung, vice chairman of Galaxy Entertainment, in a prepared statement included in Monday’s release.
Galaxy Entertainment has previously declared itself a contender for a casino licence in Japan. The firm has also hired Ted Chan Ying Tat , a former senior executive of its Macau market rival Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, as chief operating officer of its Japan development team.
