Balloons

What is Balloons?

But I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I did without all of my colleagues, past and present. Our talented team of writers, editors, web site development guys, production team, on screen reporters, Human Resources, Accountants, everyone. It took the whole team to make sure we put up the latest news and opinions every day, and everyone deserves their fair share of the credit.

To all of those I met at the handful of conferences I attended before Covid-19 sent everything to digital, and all of those I met over email or Zoom since, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope we get the chance to meet again when all of this is over, and you can reach me at any of my contact details listed at the bottom if you want to catch up in the meantime.

I’m still not 100% sure what I’ll be doing next, but I suspect it will still be in the gambling industry. This has been my life for more than a decade, and it’s an industry I continue to love and appreciate. No matter if I continue to write about it or throw myself back into an operations setting, it will always be apart of who I am. If you still want to be in touch, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, or you can follow me on Twitter if you to know whatever tangent I’ve gone off on next.

About Balloons

“Japan is acting cautiously, after observing missteps from other jurisdictions. They are proceeding in the way that best suits them,” she adds.

The factor that led some operators to drop out of the licensing race could be the “uncertainty” created by regulations that “didn’t seem set in stone”, says Leckert.

“Some of them [investors] that were looking at Japan were looking at a big IR licence or nothing. With Tokyo and Yokohama being out of the mix, maybe some weren’t as interested anymore and decided to sit back, and wait and see how regulation and licensing shake out.”

What is Balloons?

However, the scheme has faced ongoing scrutiny and criticism. Clubs can direct the funds towards upgrading their own facilities, and there is no mandated verification for how the grant recipients must deploy the money. 

The latest 2025 contribution report indicated that $127 million was awarded, with $53.3 million specifically allocated to sport-related organisations.

Caroline Lamb informed a recent review that the current responsibility of annually processing over 500 ClubGRANTS applications within a short time frame imposed significant constraints.