Social casino is still a big category in mobile gaming in the West, with companies such as Playtika, Huuuge, Moon Active, Product Madness, Big Fish Games, Double Down, Playstudios and others dominating this multi-billion dollar industry globally.
However, social casino apps play only a minor role in Japan, a country where RPGs and “gacha games” are king.
Almost no Japanese knows of the big global players in the industry mentioned above, and currently not even one of their apps is charting among the top 200 grossing mobile games in Japan.
Background On Gambling And Casinos In Japan
In this context and as part of the explanation for why, it must be noted that gambling is generally banned in Japan.
There are no casinos anywhere (the first one might open in Osaka in 2030 after decades of public discussion), online gambling is entirely illegal, and the permitted forms of gambling are strictly regulated.
For example, Japanese can gamble legally in lotteries, toto (soccer), and four types of racing: motorcycles, powerboats, bicycles, and horses.
Officially, Pachinko is not considered to be gambling – although every kid in Japan knows that it is.
The Pachinko industry is gigantic: total spending at Pachinko halls in Japan amounted to a staggering 14.6T yen (around U$95B at the current weak yen rates) in 2022 – and it used to be two times bigger just 20 years ago!
Social Casino Gaming In Japan Is Currently A Niche Market
Again: There has never been a commercially successful Western-style casino or, for that matter, Japanese-style “gambling” app (at least in the free-to-play category) in Japan.
This includes titles that are considered to be classics in the US and Europe, such as Zynga Poker or Big Fish Casino but also newer global hits such as Coin Master.
However, casino apps have traditionally been charting high and plentiful in Japan’s paid rankings.
The vast majority of local users prefer the three genres of Pachislot, Pachinko or Mahjong, with the key reason for the popularity of these apps being that gamblers use them to “practice” for when playing in the real world.
Western Social Casino Game Studios Try In Japan Anyway
Western social casino game studios have been and are still trying to break into the Japanese market in various ways.
The most common way is what I call “remote entry”, which is primarily user acquisition from outside the country through various online channels and other means.
Historically, the one social casino game company that put the most resources into cracking Japan is Playtika.
I cannot get into details here for brevity, but the Israel-based social casino giant launched an actual studio in Tokyo in 2014 to start producing a localized version of their mega hit Slotomania.
Led by an ex-Electronic Arts executive, Playtika launched said version in 2015 but was not able to produce meaningful results – which led to the closure of Tokyo operations in summer 2020.
Japan Has Its Own Casino Game Market
As far as homegrown social casino gaming is concerned, the specific market can be segmented into:
- Traditional video game companies (i.e. Sega Sammy, Konami, Capcom)
- Traditional, public mobile game companies (i.e. GREE, Colopl, DeNA, Commseed)
- Specialized in casino, private mobile casino game companies (i.e. Paon DP, Dorasu)
- Traditional gambling companies also active in mobile gaming (i.e. Heiwa, Universal Entertainment, Yamasa, Net)
These companies have been and/or are active in the casino genre in Japan in various ways and at different levels of intensity, i.e. casino game development, licensing, platforms etc.
They are also the companies that generally dominate the top grossing rankings in the casino genre on mobile, along with several foreign players from the West but also Asia (i.e. Taiwan’s International Games System).
