Episode 3: Education in the Japanese “Casino” Industry — Rob Okada

Aman: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] hello everybody. This is the eccentric CEO podcast we have with us today. Robert ODA from Los Angeles, California, currently in Japan in Osaka. I believe. Um, and Robert is building a very interesting, exciting company in the Japanese casino industry, which for since most of you are not familiar is very different from any other casino industry in the world.

[00:00:41] And we’re going to talk about that. And before doing this, Robert was an investment banker and he dealt with risk for the better part of his career. Robert, fantastic to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.

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Robert: [00:00:57] Ah, thank you. Thank you for having, uh, having me, man. I’m uh, I’m honored to be your first guest.

[00:01:04] I’m grateful that we’re able to share our story.    All right. So let’s start with the overview of the Japanese casino industry and why it’s special compared to people who are listening probably from the USA or Western Europe or, you know, Macau.

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Aman: [00:01:47] So can you just tell us a little bit about what makes Japanese casino industry unique?

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Robert: [00:01:51] I think the uniqueness is that like the gambling

[00:02:03] [00:02:00] um, um, I think what most people would think of when they think of, and they think of gambling or casino, maybe they think of putting code, it’s kind of a localized game, kind of like a pinball.

[00:02:19] Catherine’s inside the location, especially to start what reason? Um, the Kinko had been created. I think, I think most people would think of that as Japanese casino, but, but the reality is it’s completely different. What we’re talking about, what we’re talking about is often known as integrated resorts or ion, and I are.

[00:02:51] Um, the best example I was with Marina and big Ben and Singapore, they used to live in Singapore, um, in terms of what, what Japan to establish. And I are, is very much of a high-end product, right. It pitching guys not to say can go to the low end product, but hierarchy. Geared toward not just gambling much, much more than that should turn that off the industry it’s called.

[00:03:22] So meeting incentive, convention entertainment, and that’s really what Japan is looking to build, you know, within the next five years and what you have. Happening independent the earth of a brand. I mean, depending on who you talk to, um, Japan, should they launch the three locations? If we get the planning will be probably the second largest integrated resort destination for entire world.

[00:03:51] You have some manners

[00:03:56] depending on how bullish you are on that. And so that’s, I think that’s [00:04:00] the most unique thing about. What we’re looking at in terms of what the gamble, I mean, I, I hate to call it the honest buddy, in terms of the IRR industry in Japan, we’re entering a phase that’s completely new on touch. Uh, you know, basically on touch industry, um, starting at the ground level.

[00:04:22] And I think that’s the most exciting thing for, um, for anybody who is looking at this space. It’s like, how often are you. You get a chance to feel something or to create something at the very infancy of a creation. And that’s, that is the most exciting thing about Japan. I are, to be honest. Yeah.

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Aman: [00:04:43] So for context, you know, for those who are not familiar with Japan, what he talks about when he says, uh, the Pachinko industry is it’s basically like arcade games.

[00:04:51] So arcade type, uh, places are pretty popular in Japan, where you go and you play it on a slot machine and you get these, uh, this fake money in a way that the balls, which act as a new biotech, DB or something. Uh, that’s what you’re talking about. And casinos. As, you know, the concept of casino that you, that most people do know does not exist.

[00:05:11] And that’s called an IRR integrated resort. And it’s much more than a casino because since gambling is illegal, it has, you know, other things, as you said, mice, you know, um, entertainment, conventions and other things, which is a very nascent industry. So why. And this is, uh, this is probably a weird question.

[00:05:31] Why is this nascent, you know, since casinos haven’t been there and people don’t gamble legally, um, what is, what is it, what is it about IRS that they’re coming up right now? And before that was this just the arcades with putting codes or, uh, how so, can you talk about the history of this industry?

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Robert: [00:05:58] No.

[00:05:59] I mean, [00:06:00] I, I think the drive priorities and, uh, government, but I think the push of demand

[00:06:11] more tourism in town right now. When you think of Japan, I think most of the industrial sector, like, you know, manufacturing, so all the great Japanese companies are basically being captured. I mean, you have Sony that does. And then the payment that does bang. Um, but you usually probably pay over to, uh, um, you know, parts manufacturers that’s there, that’s dependent.

[00:06:38] But I think, you know, as, as costs have, you know, shifted or production facility shifted to China, to Vietnam, to different parts of the world, um, including Africa know, Japan needs to find new areas to make revenue new areas. A couple of population, one of the best way when you see this in a lot of developed countries.

[00:07:08] Yep. One of the things I love about union Japan, how much culture, how beautiful, how much Japanese people just perfect. And that’s something that they’re unique. Well, depending kind of had this romantic type image from people looking outside in. And I think the government, you know, recognizes that this is a place that they should expand off.

[00:07:40] And so coupled with, you know, a decrease in population, looking for additional revenue. So, you know, I, our integrated resort, um, kind of people for that, if you think about what I already know. Kind of redirecting, I guess before I already read the, not just the casino was one of the reasons why we [00:08:00] don’t call ourselves.

[00:08:01] You know, when we look at our business and our training, we don’t use them casino in the name of the company, the name of the group, because casino piece is really just, you know, 40 saying half of the revenue, but that other half of the revenue is driven by all the other things. Fine dining. Nice doc.

[00:08:21] Luxury shows tourism in the area. I mean, that, that, for me, that’s one of the most exciting thing because when Japan opens up, you can have a lot of people come in, not for the consumer, they want to experience Japanese culture. And instead you think about that and you think about the ability for it to generate revenue for the government in terms of past revenue.

[00:08:46] Because casinos are taxed at a different concept than most revenue, which is kind of a top level of the government up of any kind of games,

[00:09:03] almost a double taxation from the revenue from gambling.

[00:09:09] I see that is, that creates a very good, uh, Revenue source for the government. So I think, you know, when you looked at, if I, if I go back to your question, which is, you know, why is this coming from the court? You know, you know, what being on stage is really that, right? It’s the combination of defend needs more revenue.

[00:09:29] This is a way to showcase that to you. And it’s not just pure gaps. Do the get Chico Greg long? Yeah, no, you know, there’s no real. No, uh, pieces other than the playing the game, right? You go to a particular parlor. You play, you leave, you go. You know, when, like if I met Marina, I go to the whole crowd. I go up to [00:10:00] the infinity pool.

[00:10:01] I

[00:10:06] down to my room and I go down, I’d probably watch this, Joe. Uh, the, uh, at the convention at the convention center, but they have like theater. I go there and maybe there’s an event I go to the event night and then, and then maybe I go, no, but,

[00:10:32] but that’s, that’s a very different concept and image, and I think what most people have, um, uh, You. Yeah, I think you put those things together. Consider like who your target market is, the ability to tax it, the ability to get revenue. That is what the penalty is looking to bring in. I think the revenue, the revenue thing that I can do.

[00:10:54] Makes

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Aman: [00:10:54] sense. So since, so instead of, uh, so someone goes, who goes to Vegas, uh, most of them don’t gamble, but they just look around and they do the other stuff you need to serve the Solei, do the shows, all the stuff. So an IRA is basically all of that in one and casino or gambling, even if gambling was illegal in Japan and stayed illegal.

[00:11:15] That would still be a very small part of what an IRS, uh, the other stuff is actually what makes it the, you know, a lucrative business for the government to encourage?

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Robert: [00:11:26] Yeah, I think, I mean, I do think that the actual casino is very important for the model of this. I don’t think you would happen without the basically impossible because then what you have in Disneyland.

[00:11:42] Ah, okay. You go to Tokyo, they create, uh, there’s a big product experi, which is like right next door

[00:11:55] and that kind of [00:12:00] already did. I mean, can that be doubted that the Chino portion of, and depending on who you deal with, I mean, it would generate revenue and DDR. Really from, I mean, did you have plans for gross gaming revenue? So you only get that basic path from VR, um, through, yeah, that’s still a very massive revenue drivers that, I mean, you know, I, our need to, um, the gambling, but I think that many people forgetting why I think, you know, it can make a big difference in Japan, the similar.

[00:12:40] To Singapore, I always used to live there. Um, is that the, the gambling part of business or the IO part of the business? The whole, the whole piece is really geared more towards the people who can come in and spend that money as entertainment. And I think similar to what you see in Singapore, uh, and I, and I’m pretty sure what happened.

[00:13:04] There will be a. Or local city, uh, who would want to enter into the casino. Unfortunately I are to try to gait gambling addiction. And I think that makes sense. So, I mean, you can see, they put this path entrance patch for people coming in who are local, but no entrance tax before and goes back to this idea that this is really trying to bring in additional money into the country.

[00:13:32] Like focus on what I would call, like, did you look to a particular industry? Most of those people are local probably haven’t. Yeah. I mean either, but I’m sure people will want to come in and they’ll want to play the role. And hopefully it doesn’t, you know, you don’t. I always think that people who are addicted to gambling.

[00:14:02] [00:14:00] Okay. Um, and so you can see, like the model is really geared for the it’s inbound through them.

[00:14:14] Okay. Cool. Yeah,

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Aman: [00:14:15] absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So now let’s zoom in to your particular company, and I guess since you have a, you know, kind of a, a very slightly sophisticated model, let’s start with, you know, who are your customers and what do you do for them? There’s a simple equation. Yep.

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Robert: [00:14:35] Yeah. Let me get.

[00:14:41] We’re super basic. Um, I think in a nutshell, like when I talk to people, you say it’s a diverse school and maybe that kind of,

[00:14:53] maybe that’s not glamorous and I apologize for being your dad or your dad, but yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re a school. Um, so put things in context, depending on, we’ll probably build out three IRR, um, With on the proposal, it could be less, but it won’t keep more. And of those of those three are kind of like national ones.

[00:15:13] That one is more like a regional one, but any decade, the estimates that I are required 10,000, so that’s 30 people one-third of the people are going to be dealing. So 3000 times.

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Aman: [00:15:28] So dealers, by the way, for those who are listening, dealers are when you go to a casino and you play it at a table, the people who deal the cards, uh, there were, uh, what we call dealers and they’re, they’re very skilled and they have a very important job, which is to make sure you’re playing clean and you’re not cheating, uh, as well as making sure you’re having a good experience.

[00:15:47] So it’s a skilled job that requires a lot of training.

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Robert: [00:15:51] Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. It’s the, I mean, I think if you’re in. One of the very large IRS, which [00:16:00] is probably not going to

[00:16:06] Yep.

[00:16:06] So $10 billion

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Aman: [00:16:11] to make one big, big casino in the U S

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Robert: [00:16:15] yeah. Are you in Japan though? I mean, this is going to be probably the world for my. Actually, I’m not actually that close to what is actually being built.

[00:16:32] So what the actual plan, maybe to

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Aman: [00:16:35] that order of magnitude, it’s

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Robert: [00:16:38] definitely an expensive project. Is that kind of order. There’s a lot of infrastructure costs involved then talking about

[00:16:49] airport. There’s a lot of coffee. But usually the number that I hear. Okay. Okay. Um, but you’re right in terms of, uh, the idea of that, um, or I’m sorry, going back to our vision distracted, but our business is pretty simple. So we’re just trying to train those 9,000 people and prepare them because most likely.

[00:17:17] And again, we don’t know for sure, because we’re still waiting to prologue, but if we were to go with what we think a lot of the first employment opportunity to the Japanese for, for resident. Yeah.

[00:17:38] Could we think about what the purpose was? I think I are so good. This why I’m a supporter of because it’s meant to give people jobs. In Japan, if you look at Japan, it’s kind of a, um, it’s kind of like the historical job training and Japan was kind of gone through [00:18:00] several periods. And one of the periods with like, do you have a lot of people who are my age or kind of just been doing part-time?

[00:18:10] Yep, yep. No real social benefit. And to be honest, this is actually one of the reasons, right. Japan as a, as a country, doesn’t have more children. It’s not a factor. I don’t like that or anything like that. It’s more of a factor in order to have a family in order to, you know, prosper, um, personally and professionally, you need to have money.

[00:18:33] That’s the thing. You don’t have money, you can raise children. And if all you’re doing is working at a convenience store or working in a shop like a clothing apparel shop, part-time you have three of these jobs. Then you can get the whole time. You never to generate enough.

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Aman: [00:18:48] So you, by training them by training these people to become dealers, which is a specialized skill, it’s a much more high-paying job than a part-time job that most people find.

[00:18:58] They ha they find, you know, much better employment prospects, uh, in the ER, or even abroad. Right.

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Robert: [00:19:06] You can be abroad. Yeah, exactly. I think that from the English mobile, of course, but getting back to your point of view for us, It creates an opportunity for, and I think we’ll do this better jobs for people, people who maybe even didn’t go to high school.

[00:19:20] Right. Because as long as you can learn this skillset that you can gain that you alluded to one of the, okay. That would be overhand money, right? Yeah. Let’s say you have a, you know, you can build a career and I think that’s the thing. None of things that sometimes I think it’s a highly educated population that people go to school, but they displace where you have, you do have people who just aren’t good at school.

[00:19:51] You know what I mean? And those individuals also need, and it’s the same with like single parents, you know what I mean? You may be [00:20:00] aware, but depend the single parent population and the mothers are one of the poorest in the world. And you know, you look back at having IRR had done. In different locations in Vegas and report Australia, Canada, um, because of the hours that you’re able to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, single mothers, single fathers, people who have other requirements, other needs, they’re not implying to kind of the typical working hour.

[00:20:28] Right. And of course in this COVID world, everyone worked remote almost that maybe it’s not a big of a deal, but you probably need to have a quality education. If you’re thinking my mother who never went to college, You looking for a job, it’s probably not that easy. Right. But I think I are, we’ll be able to kind of change that and that’s a dream opportunity for people.

[00:20:49] And that’s why we’re so bullish on the area because we believe that it can be easy to change the lives of many, many people. And actually, I mean, just a quick leg about our business, but one of the things, because we recognize this. We do to kind of feed into the, is that if you’re a single parent, single mother, single father doesn’t matter, or you have stability, we charge you to do yep.

[00:21:12] We take you for free. We don’t even charge your registration costs. And, and that’s because, you know, we believe that will change depending on get people, you know, more working opportunity. And you know, for us that you can take care of a single parent and you can also, in some ways that trickled down to their childhood, right.

[00:21:32] And you’re changing the whole. The landscape of, of society in general would help people. And so I know like, you know, in the book, the people who are against IRR, they’ll say you’re going to create gambling addiction. Again, I think people who are addicted to gambling, they already evicted. And hopefully like the revenue that’s created, we can create better programs to help people with addiction.

[00:21:55] I read in Singapore, um, and I wish I could find the quote. [00:22:00] Maybe later I’ll send you the link. But that actually gambling addiction kind of decrease over time. So maybe like one point we made a number. I think it was like 1.5% or something like that. But like 1.3 over the course of that. Yeah, no worries.

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Aman: [00:22:20] Yeah. I don’t think, I don’t think the, I don’t think the listeners to the show are really worried about gambling addictions because half of half of them are investors

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Robert: [00:22:30] opportunities. I think promoting, um, the reduction of gambling addiction right here. I mean, this was an industry that also grows out of know some of that money will happen. Did you use for those kinds of the program, but by the long story short, right? I mean, you know, I think overall, like you were going to be able to help kind of take the people who are already addicted to gambling.

[00:22:54] There’s probably not that many programs right now that I’m aware of that really focused on when you do have like gambling economists type programs in Japan. But, you know, I think once you started moving more in dire space becomes much more of a bigger issue in terms of not, not in terms of people becoming more addicted, just there’s more awareness.

[00:23:14] Kind of right now, it’s kind of a taboo subject, right. People go to the know they have dads, but it’s not really just like, okay, this would happen. I think you bring in an IRR, a very functional high end female, and then people start to spend money. Actually it’ll push the rate of gambling addiction down. I think, you know, sorry again.

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Aman: [00:23:33] Yeah, no worries. No worries. Yeah. So, you know, just to recap, I want to, I want to emphasize on a couple of things that you said one, um, That dealing, you mentioned that it’s about the, the volume of how many hands you’re dealing. Right? So since the, you know, of course by the law of large numbers, the casino always wins.

[00:23:56] You want to, you want to play as many games as possible in a [00:24:00] single day. And the dealers, the, you know, uh, who are dealing the cards are trained for speed. Um, to increase the revenue. So the, the better the dealers are, the more the revenue of the, of the casino. And therefore the industry will increase, right?

[00:24:16] And these people are often, um, you know, they help single parents. So, uh, your company, trains dealers to, you know, be employed at these big, uh, IRR, which are coming up hopefully, and, uh, by taking care of the supply. Um, you know, the more supply there is the customers will usually come, you know, in a, in a demand supply model often when you have enough supply, uh, you know, the demand is, uh, follows.

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Robert: [00:24:50] Yeah. I, I mean, I, I think, you know, for us a little bit, I mean, yeah. I mean, how do I explain this? Um, I mean, I think, I think that’s right. The thing is we already know what the demand is.

[00:25:08] Didn’t either requirement. Right. And we also know that most likely a lot of heated will quit because your job isn’t easy. I meant the

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Aman: [00:25:16] demand for, so I meant the demand for food for the casino, not for your business, your, but your, your, the supply you’re supplying and Dixie. You’re supplying the, um, the, the dealers, right.

[00:25:27] But the demand for casino players for gamblers, for lack of a better word in Japan, we’re talking about that one.

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Robert: [00:25:36] Uh, yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I think there’s something to build them up. Yeah.

[00:25:45] Before, before this pandemic started having record growth in terms of balance,

[00:25:55] uh, Of the economy without considering just [00:26:00] natural, no tourism, inbound tourists. So, I mean, I think that’s, that’s the given and from, from what we’re trying to produce in terms of, yeah, we, if applying or we want to be able to apply to the ER, when they arrive and, you know, we do that by showing, you know, we have the best training product.

[00:26:21] So one of the things about another plug for sure. Um, you know, our co founder, uh, Rocky had the GDP, the big rock Vegas feeling. So we brought in, I mean, he’s, he’s probably the most recognized, uh, professional cable game either in Japan. He’d been on TV to see him deal with the man you’d recognize. I mean, he definitely.

[00:26:55] And he, our whole program does all the training. Obviously, you know, there’s a scalability factor there. Yes. And the teachers, but, but the thing is that we have struggled with them because you can’t find that level of quality, but you know, again, we brought in the best guy, I’m proud to have him there to do the train to the highest level that you would expect for a, whatever.

[00:27:21] Yeah. Is the pinnacle of primary. I R that you would see anywhere. The world. Um, and I think that’s the goal. So,

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Aman: [00:27:37] so what, what, what really goes into, so what, so just stop you there. What really goes into, since you were, since you’re talking about this, what really goes into training, an average person who has never dealt cards before, um, or do you pick the average just average people can sign up to your program and they can become world-class dealers in like a span of, uh, let’s say a few months or how does, can you talk a little bit about

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Robert: [00:28:01] that?

[00:28:01] Uh, I would hesitate to use kind of like, you know, within a few months or something. Yep, yep, yep. Yep. Like any legitimate training program, uh, we have to talk within the bounds of what is it capable? So, so for us, I mean, one of the unique things about us, because we know we have so much runway from when, from where we are now to an R we’ll start.

[00:28:23] I think, I think we’re probably the only program that has what’s called an open school concept are very similar. We have no term. We don’t really have like a class schedule. Maybe that sounds crazy. But what it is is we have students come in, they can be completely no experience whatsoever. We teach them from zero all the way until they pass what we call the audition.

[00:28:54] And then afterwards, after you, after you pass. You can continue to stay at the school. So like there’s no term, like I would never say in six months time, you’re going to be a world class. No, no you’re coming. You keep practicing because, because dealing is a combination of physical stuff that, you know, how you, how you fuck, um, how you shuffle the card, how you deal with the cards, how you manage the game, how you protect game.

[00:29:25] There’s a lot of different things. Great then at the same time, you’d have to be a fun dealer to deal with. Right. And I think the other problem in Japan, which we try to address through our, through our program is the need for Haynesville or the need for foreign language. So if you think about the concept of near toward the inbound tourism, well, most of those people probably not going to speak definitely, but if you’re going to hire them, Mainly definitely people because then, you know, the rule comes out as like hire somebody that’s B or [00:30:00] resident.

[00:30:00] And it’s likely those, the general Japanese population at speak Japanese speak English, but they’re just a little bit shy or they didn’t, haven’t had much chance to practice or they’re very good at reading, but maybe not very good at speaking. And one of the things we do is we help them to overcome that in our program.

[00:30:18] And I think those are, those are the. Uniqueness of what we do, because we’re thinking about really getting dubbed in an IRR ease then about not only having the correct skillsets with Rocky to the best level. Yeah. Amazing. But then to also have them be able to communicate to the customer in English. And so right now we focus on English of course, but you know, longer term down the, you know, product variety.

[00:30:47] Commander. Yep. Yep. We need to be teaching all the different languages that may be necessary without who we think will be coming in. As in Japan, of course, you know, a lot of the inbound tourists will speak English. So English will be kind of the primary focus for us right now. Um, if you can get into there, the product.

[00:31:13] Get more information. Yeah.

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Aman: [00:31:15] So for, and for those who are listening, who are unfamiliar, I’m going to post a video in the links that, uh, shows the, what he’s talking about. The open floor gym plan basically is a school where. You go into a large room, which has a lot of tables and, you know, you have some trainers and teachers and you’re playing and dealing with each other at the same time at all hours of the day, you can go in and train with people, not just learn, not really learn in the classroom, but actually train, um, you know, hands-on and, uh, this goes on.

[00:31:48] So you, they pay you a one-time fee. Um, and, uh, they can. Come and learn and play for however long until they pass the exam, the [00:32:00] audition and they can keep, you know, stay there and help new new students. And so it’s like a virtual cycle of you’re building a community of dealers at your school. Um, that just feeds itself as well.

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Robert: [00:32:15] Yeah, that’s correct. I think, you know, one of the, one of the concepts we have. Very much building community. And it goes again to this idea that there’s no real IRA, really, uh,

[00:32:30] be able to build it and create that community. And I think that’s one of the things that I’ve appreciated most about being part of this, the kind of the various people, um, you know, kind of come in and really become a family. Amazing. I can’t remember. Sorry, I didn’t answer it, but around, you know, who who’s our customer, I think.

[00:32:54] Yeah. Oh yeah. Yep, yep. Yep. One of the things I think one of the things I want to know is, and I’ve never seen it and I’ve looked at a lot of different

[00:33:06] things, but I’ve never seen a business that, or I’ve never been part of a business. That’s had such a wide range of demographics. So. Give me an example, like, you know, we have, we have, our youngest student is 16 years old and you know, our, our oldest , we have almost a 50, 50% split between men and women. We have, we, we, we almost, you know, you take the median age about 37 years.

[00:33:35] Um, and then running across various industries. We have people, I think, I think 15% of our student population on their own business. So it’s not like, you know, they’re, they’re probably not going to work in an IRR, but they’re just interested in, you know, we have another portion that actually your school, but then if they want to learn, so they come in and join us professionals.

[00:33:57] We have one guy who is actually a banker [00:34:00] seriously. And we have, we have people who do part-time work. And it’s so, I mean, I’ve never seen this kind of like wide range across men and women across, you know, age demographic. It’s amazing. And I think this is one of the attractions of IIR, right? I mean, I R when I are launching it, it opens up for like a space where you’re not really skewed kind of just one, like, you know, under 20.

[00:34:29] Right. All those people don’t take back. They’re generally like pretty young, right.

[00:34:37] Yeah, everybody loves casinos. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. It doesn’t matter where you are kind of on the gamut. There is something that’s kind of, you know, exciting and intriguing. And I think because it’s going to be needed and you’re going to feel this rush of like new players, new people, new places for advertising.

[00:34:55] Gaming sites, I think, you know, and I think that’s very, um, I think that’s very exciting. We can see that already.

[00:35:05]

Aman: [00:35:05] I see. So, uh, so what you’re saying is there’s a community of dealers and aspiring dealers in Japan, and you can see that it’s growing pretty quickly. There’s a lot of people who are interested in being a dealer.

[00:35:17] And then on the other side, you have a global demand for the dealers themselves. So the dealers pay to train and to learn to be a dealer. And then they get placed as, um, I to work at casinos from, you know, in Canada, USA, Macau, Singapore, whatever. So can you just quickly talk about the demand for the dealers themselves?

[00:35:39] So Japan is separate, you know, the IRS, there are three that, that are, you know, supposedly in the works and then, but internationally. So I know personally that you help place your, um, your students in casinos all over the world. Can you talk about that part of the business a little bit?

[00:35:58]

Robert: [00:35:58] Y. Yeah. I mean, I think [00:36:00] if I can just correctly, we, we haven’t actually placed anyone yet.

[00:36:05] Okay. And there are some countries where they’re difficult. So for example, Macau, Singapore, Australia, they would be challenged,

[00:36:17] but, um, Canada, as well as, um, on boat. So cruise ship kind of our main targets. Congratulations. So, you know, we’ve been fortunate company partners

[00:36:36] once a week.

[00:36:40] And I think that’s, you know, to be honest, that’s one of the bottlenecks for us. One of the challenges for us being a company that’s very much focused on like a business that’s not socially distant.

[00:36:50] In different countries where I are in this, you know, at the top time for this industry. Right. And I think, you know, for us as well, like if we can play, I think one of the things in our, our program is key. And so if you’re a painter, you know, you’re paying this money and then you’re looking to get a job, right.

[00:37:13] You can actually find you a job because there’s no IRA in Japan going overseas right now, an option. So. What’s the Dan’s. I mean, of course that will be a strong focus and drive breath.

[00:37:31] That’s valuable for us because obviously they have their life experience. There’ll be more valuable. So that’s, that’s, it’s hard to extrapolate on that because it’s not really who they are, but

[00:37:49]

Aman: [00:37:49] yeah, Darian.

[00:37:49] Yeah. And, uh, in general, when you talk about casinos, uh, elsewhere, how did they do most of their recruiting? Do they train internally in general or do [00:38:00] they have, you know, schools like yours all over the world, which are also supplying these, uh, these candidates?

[00:38:06]

Robert: [00:38:06] Yeah. Then that’s the, that’s the most awful question to your listeners and viewers?

[00:38:14] I just point out one thing. You know, it’s funny, like I’m sure most people say, well, why would you change the business? And I think that’s what probably digress into, or this would probably segue. Yeah. Th the next, the next chapter. Yeah. Yeah. But the fact of the matter is that normally what will happen are we expected that when the I, our lab.

[00:38:42] You know, they, they will probably have their own training program

[00:38:46] and that’s the problem is you need to hire 3000 people. And more than that by that, um, and there’s probably not the capacity on day one to get that many people on board. So that’s why we’re kind of ahead of the curve train repair people, uh, before that happened, uh, was that, uh, And the DIR lab and they build their own school.

[00:39:12] Of course, probably most likely what will happen is they will pay you, you learn, you learn, then they would train you and you work for them. Right. Um, so this business model. Yep. But I think, you know, our role is to create high quality dealers, early trained abroad, because, because our view is this, that we’re actually not training.

[00:39:36] You mean people, you know, Rocky and I bet a lot of conversations is not to train people to be entry level. What we hope is our first generation of dealers that we’re teaching that we’re training to this level and they’re getting them jobs abroad or on boat that when they come back, they come back as supervisors.

[00:39:56] Right. Um, and because the [00:40:00] Japanese said, we’ll be there. English well enough that they will take those higher level roles. And then people coming in from the bottom, because they already have experience that have dropped me, they’re able to land. Um, so yeah, so I think that’s what I love about we’re racing against the clock, because we know that, you know, the, the, the ability for us to create what we want.

[00:40:32] I paid now, of course, we’ll get, we can do things well, and we can prove that we have the right program then, you know, hopefully, you know, hopefully there’s an opportunity for us to do something together with one of the IRS or all of the IRS is our hope. But, you know, we, we don’t know that. Right. We can’t promise that.

[00:40:52] I think for us, it’s about creating environments where we’re giving people a chance to see the future. But then you’d be existing kind of what the feature is. If our goal is to get them in the supervisor and to have that experience with depth of experience where they can come in and be like the train, the trainer, be the first Japanese to take these roles happy to about, you know, kind of just create that culture.

[00:41:26] And I think even wearing masks. So there’s this, you’re trying to show people like, look at this, isn’t that big, right? I mean, gambling, gambling, addiction, and bad. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want people to lose their money and their family. I don’t want that. I mean, we want to do something good. And so we’re trying to just be ambassadors of that States, right?

[00:41:47] We’re trying to say this isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually should have more. They should do more good than harm. And I believe that I’m a firm believer. That you can change up to people’s life. Um, [00:42:00] but yeah, we’re racing against the clock and we recognize that we have to get out of it. Yep. Which is, which is what we are

[00:42:08]

Aman: [00:42:08] going to discuss next in the next chapter.

[00:42:11] Uh, yeah. So, so before we close this chapter, let me try to give a summary. You know, uh, in my words that we discussed first, uh, the gambling industry in Japan and the history and why, first of all, it’s illegal. So there’s no real gambling industry in Japan at all. Um, but they recognize the depending, you know, because of the margins of the casino business and the IRR and seeing its success elsewhere in the world and given their recent push into inbound tourism, they are.

[00:42:43] They’re supposedly in the works of know, setting up three big IRS in Japan, which will, you know, uh, by themselves have a demand of let’s say 9,000 or so dealers from the very beginning. And, uh, since it’s a high, skilled job, um, these dealers have to be trained for several months to maybe years, um, and have to come from somewhere.

[00:43:09] And you started a school. First to help provide the best quality, the cream of the crop of these dealers, even though you expect that. When they, when the IRS do open up, they’ll probably have some plans to start their own schools in parallel and train a lot of the DDAs on their own, um, and paying them to get trained.

[00:43:36] Most of them, I, I assumed. Um, and so you’re calling it a dead business, but, uh, And that is, that may be partly true, but, you know, given, but I think the whole landscape, you know, in general looks very optimistic. Of course, uh, Japanese people, themselves, there are players in Japan who of course go abroad and deal and [00:44:00] they love Pachinko.

[00:44:01] So, and there’s like, you know, there’s probably a demand of actually gamers, um, in Japan. And then.

[00:44:09] definitely,

[00:44:09]

Robert: [00:44:09] but not, uh, not, not probably not that many tons of players definitely Lebanese do play. Yep. So the,

[00:44:25]

Aman: [00:44:25] the inbound tourism push from Japan at the government itself, and, you know, there are players in Japan and, you know, as you said, the public perception towards gambling, uh, from a political standpoint, it’s.

[00:44:40] It seems to be softening over time and there’s data to back up the claim. That is that, would that be, would that be an unfair statement to say it’s softening?

[00:44:50]

Robert: [00:44:50] Yeah, I think it’s that. I don’t think it’s one of our roles that have been baptized. There’s someone trying to show the value of that. It’s not bad.

[00:45:01] I think you look at a location in like April Houma. That’s the, one of the proposed location. Um, you know, I mean the citizen there.

[00:45:14] Yeah. In terms of their views toward, you know, I can understand that I don’t hold on

[00:45:25] what is the value, but I do think there are, you know, I think the concern that they raised. You know or not, but I, I think again for me, when I looked at it, Yeah.

[00:45:47] It’s

[00:45:48]

Aman: [00:45:48] like, even if the perception is, you know, currently a negative. I believe that given the scale of these projects and the infrastructure in the city and the surrounding area and the [00:46:00] jobs it’s going to create, just to set up those, you know, big, uh, integrated resorts that should probably change the perception as you know, okay.

[00:46:08] Your local economy is being helped so much by building these things. And of course, once, you know, After a few years, public perception is like the weather, you know, uh, once there’s enough money and stuff, you know, it starts to change a little bit or at least be okay with it. Uh, so that, that part is also there.

[00:46:28]

Robert: [00:46:28] I think that it’s just, once people understand what, what I R is then

[00:46:36] yeah. And then I can sense that we have a negative perception, but then when you ask them, like, have they been to IRR? Have they been to Las Vegas? Have they been.

[00:47:08] Then when you explain it to them, then you can see their depression. I think that that’s the piece that needs to be. It’s more just the fact that they don’t really understand what it is. They hear casino and they think

[00:47:28] Back the room or someplace

[00:47:30] like that. Right. And I think getting over that, that misconception, I think, I think once people understand, they see it very beautiful it’s

[00:47:49]

Aman: [00:47:49] of resort. It’s a resort, which just happens to have a casino as part of the,

[00:47:54]

Robert: [00:47:54] yeah, that’s right. People recognize that. And when they see that [00:48:00] then on the channel, is this actually that bad, right?

[00:48:02] This is great. And you know, particularly like for us, like we’re, we’re big. I mean, we’re close to so many cultural plates, you know, you can imagine like someone goes through the data venture or some giant e-sports tournament here, um, at the convention center. And then afterwards after that event is over.

[00:48:22] During the event, people go to

[00:48:29] the trunk area and they just visit all kinds of things that has nothing to do with that. That has everything to do with being at the convention, because there is a large event that went there and then you could read out right now, I’m McDonald’s, you know, the thing is the amount of residual income for the surrounding region.

[00:48:48] The measurable. I think that’s the value of that’s

[00:49:03] awesome.

[00:49:04] D D D do you have any of the Osaka

[00:49:12]

Aman: [00:49:12] dialect in your Japanese now?

[00:49:15]

Robert: [00:49:15] Oh, okay. Well,

[00:49:29]

Aman: [00:49:29] it’s good. You learn, you learn basic Japanese from the, uh, from the Osaka people. So it’s going to be an authentic Osaka. Uh, you know, actually you

[00:49:38]

Robert: [00:49:38] should get that thing away. One of the things, um, you know, because, because we’re fully bilingual by that, I mean, right. Um, we do, uh, and are looking to continually bring in, uh, like born students as well.

[00:50:00] [00:49:59] So we’ve seen some interest in some of it. Um, and that’s because, you know, you think about it, like we’ll need

[00:50:11] speed that day.

[00:50:16] And maybe they want to work in the future, then what we do

[00:50:20] to deal with the customer in Japanese. Obviously that requires a little bit more, um, a little bit more, I guess, keeping accuracy

[00:50:33] have pick the customers, but I think like, you know, basic gap.

[00:50:42] No, an angle that I think no one else to deal with. So again, like we are quite focused on Japanese citizen native. Definitely.

[00:50:59] We haven’t, we haven’t been fortunate enough to have a born. Definitely. You got to think like 9,000 people is a lot and. Will be turnover. I mean, uh, the man

[00:51:17] people, and once it’s legalized

[00:51:21]

Aman: [00:51:21] and once it’s legalized, it’s not like those three will be the only IRA there’s going to be smaller, much smaller level local, you know, IRA type, uh, establishment, like, like, like we have so many karaoke bars or not. No. Uh, okay. So the government is going to control. How many exactly there are and how they

[00:51:44]

Robert: [00:51:44] operate.

[00:51:44] I see. Okay. I mean, depends on three. So there will be no knock on smaller ones, but there are those illegal as what we expected with the ledger where [00:52:00] there’s still a lot of information. So a lot of that has to come out. Yeah, I don’t not that, I mean, he liked me and of course, if you’re you’re a casino or you’re in VR and then all of a sudden all these.

[00:52:24] Yep.

[00:52:24] Yeah, yep, yep. Yep. Like 9,000. I mean, if you just go with the peer number, just pick the number nine. Yeah. Yeah. But still big. It’s huge. I mean, yeah. You know, I have had some conversations around like, what’s this girl would turnover rate when you first open that IRR. And so I have some sense on what that is.

[00:52:47] I think that you, like, I paid,

[00:52:52] even if you were to take all of the people who came now, not just from us, but from other Japanese.

[00:52:58] So just to, just to stay on that, um,

[00:53:09]

Aman: [00:53:09] what’s your, for the school, what’s the competitive landscape like, are there, like, I do assume there’s not many of set schools around who are teaching peers to be dealers, but could you give us a sense of your objective sense of what, what it’s like in Japan right now?

[00:53:27]

Robert: [00:53:27] I mean, I think, you know, our, what we offer is completely different than our job. You other,

[00:53:37] uh, Japan, I R five. Oh, so there there’s a, there’s been

[00:53:43]

Aman: [00:53:43] schools that have been training people for a long time. And what are their students do? Like where do they go?

[00:53:49]

Robert: [00:53:49] Yeah. So basically they would go to probably Canada or

[00:53:55] abroad. I mean, there are, there, there are. I’d be there. Of course [00:54:00] there have to be because very similar. Right. We do have a definitely customer coming you. Yep, yep, yep. Yep.

[00:54:16] Again, but I wouldn’t, if I go this way, this is going to have fun. It’s more for me to not make money necessarily. Have conversations, right? Yeah.

[00:54:29] But $5 for, you know, the, the, you know, on a dollar game or whatever they fight and you know, that’s fun. Right. You have a conversation with someone,

[00:54:46] so. And those, you know, those other schools that, you know, successfully train. And I think, you know, we’re offering the finger, you get that, you know, you have the population because there’s so much need. If you have this population of students who probably didn’t have the language ability to work abroad, and there are no jobs in Japan, um, for us, it’s about.

[00:55:15] Like saying like you pay this one-time fee, but you continue to come to the school because it gets the physical skills that once you stop dealing graduate and you stop feeling, you’re going to leave that you would definitely use that. We have a student who passed to the game and then she could kind of move through this yet.

[00:55:35] He had another job cause she wasn’t able to come in for about a month or so. And then she came back and you could see like he had already left. You know some of that field because he’s not,

[00:55:50] I mean, you’d never forget a hundred percent.

[00:55:52] You’ve only done, you know, you stopped for a month [00:56:00] and then you come back when you’re doing it for 10 years, you’ve

[00:56:04]

Aman: [00:56:04] been really good for one month. Oh, like, uh, from those four months, and then you take a one month break, you know, of course there’s bound to be some, uh, fall off in your, uh, in

[00:56:16]

Robert: [00:56:16] your skill.

[00:56:17] Exactly. So we addressed that by saying like you come in the other schools, sometimes they will charge where you come in to use the facility for athletes, never the case, because our objective is. Instead of the company, our values and our objective to get people, jobs, get them done. Right. We’re not here just to make a quick buck

[00:56:40] product roadmap. So, I mean, yeah. So I think that it’s not really comparable or again, there are some competitors. Um, but I think, you know, we’re probably the only one I would say we’re the only one that probably integrates language or, you know, um, you’re going to need that communication skill. Right.

[00:57:08] Especially, I mean, if you’re focusing, like if you’re going to say all your customers are Japanese, that you don’t need English. Yeah. But if you align with what, you know, what the government, anything before inbound tourism, well, then you’re going to need foreign language skills as part of the role. Okay, so they’re going to be born in a day.

[00:57:27]

Aman: [00:57:27] Yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense. You know, that, you know, you, uh, given the, the goal of, you know, making them employable, you are preparing them and selling them for, uh, more of a, you know, a regular routine of coming in and keep polishing their skills. So, you know, since you’re talking about. Uh, the dealer community in Japan, let’s move to the next chapter, which is the tech company plant, you know, you’re, um, building an app to, or like a platform to [00:58:00] further, you know, grow this community and, uh, Duke some interesting things there.

[00:58:04] Could you give us an overview of that?

[00:58:08]

Robert: [00:58:08] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, from our side, uh, and when we started. We’ve always known that moving to the tech space and that’s going to sound really weird, but I think, you know, I’ve been fortunate

[00:58:24] to recognize the true scale of, I mean, obviously school schools do make money because they have quite a bit of cash flow, right. For a lot of startup type businesses that are non-credit. Can be challenging for us. We don’t really have that problem.

[00:58:51] Yup. Yup. But you know, in order to create a real, not a hobby, we look at what the school hobby

[00:59:04] we never going to make. Yeah,

[00:59:11]

Aman: [00:59:11] like you said, it’s a dead business.

[00:59:17]

Robert: [00:59:17] Yup. Yup. Yup. Um, so we’ve always recognized that we’re working very closely and I think the real story for us about the community and you see that in the physical world, but you’ll see that on the online, um, This is to really grow that community.

[00:59:36] Um, and we have several, we have several meetings in

[00:59:46] this scenario though, interested in investing more. Um, but we do have things in the worst, you know, both, I think both in [01:00:00] terms of kind of the community aspect.

[01:00:05] And one of the interesting things about the company, you know, we follow IRS data, um, that would, that was on purpose. Um, but the gaming actually has away from other areas of gaming. Um Hmm.

[01:00:17] Um, and we are looking at a variety of what was the product, because I think, you know, for us, this is the beginning concept rubric. So we’re bringing this concept of, you know, real life training. Anywhere, real life skillsets followed by language. There’s a lot of different types of businesses. Lots of types of things in Japan that I think require that.

[01:00:40] Like how do you incorporate language into vocational training, especially if the future of Japan, inbound tourism sounds crazy and make environment, but eventually we will come back. If that’s the goal. Uh, with the government,

[01:01:01] then this is a place that will need that you need to kind of building your skillset of vocation or some kind of other kind of, you know, skill, sorry, followed by followed by language ability, because how do you deal with all these interrupters? You know, breath kind of get to the beginning of what we’re looking at.

[01:01:32] So,

[01:01:32]

Aman: [01:01:32] so, so technology, you know, just to make sure it’s clear because, um, um, what you’re doing is, so there’s a community of dealers and aspiring dealers in Japan and the tech play at a high level at a 5,000 feet level. Without going into the detail into the details is about. Uh, okay. Nurturing that community.

[01:01:56] And of course there’s advertising and this data and, you know, other business [01:02:00] models that are common and whenever you’re building a social network type of, or community, uh, of any niche audience, um, But, so you’re saying that the main play that’s going to replace the, or when eventually when the school, if, and when the school eventually gets faced doubt of the market by the big players who are coming in, um, the tech based, uh, platform that you would have built to with this huge community of dealers, uh, in Japan, that will be your main.

[01:02:35] Uh, your main play. And can you talk at least at a high level? Could you talk about, and maybe, maybe they’re, you know, getting into the, uh, more sensitive details here, but, uh, if you can take the lead here and give us a little more picture to sort of, so we can visualize what you’re thinking.

[01:02:54]

Robert: [01:02:54] Yeah. I think you kind of touched upon what I mean focuses. It comes back to the concept again of community. Real community, every single location. I mean, we have faith for

[01:03:11] community, but in terms of kind of involving where we can that community or not that’s for the dealer. Yep. We’re very focused on the platform for that. And I think, you know, one of the things we’re kind of early with the game, but I think we’re not. Right now five years from now, you know, we have a chance by being in this space already.

[01:03:37] I mean, we clearly, you know, thanks to our co-founder right. I give them all the credit to Rocky or Jane legitimacy in the IRS state. Right. Whereas my background was more like a little bit different. No. When I talked to Rocky, I learned so much from the knowledge and [01:04:00] understanding of the industry, and we’ve been fortunate to have other advisors who have gained.

[01:04:04] Um, so I think, you know, for us, that’s the most genuine thing. And we, because we have that company culture is kind of built in within our DNA. Um, and we’re mostly. You know, what did he do? And it’s still a small space again, because is here. You have big players, you have whales, Japanese whales, and then those guys, you know, those they’re all over the place.

[01:04:32] Well-connected no, but, but in order to build this from the grass roots from the ground up, it’s not a movie peer yet. And I think that’s the place where we’re trying to kind of feeding. You said, if you think about what the place. Actually the school is like people know where they didn’t have the right group to move down to the right thing to do this community.

[01:04:55] We were all

[01:04:55] temporary back in Japan. We’re small enough that there’s tons of other big companies that are that big, but we’re kind of the grassroots player. Right. And we’re trying to demonstrate and show that on top of that. Because we’re at the graduate. I think we need the advantage. We dreamed big enough to say, Hey, we’re good.

[01:05:22] We can also

[01:05:27] create that from day one. I think that’s, that’s where we were. And I don’t want, you know, I did say I just want to go back on one thing real quick, cause I don’t want to get, I don’t want people to think like, you know, we think the school is completely dead. Um, what I, what I want to say if we do it right.

[01:05:43] The school, the school can continue on. And I, I think it’s completely possible if we can, you know, one of the objectives you have over the next year is to be able to train at a low cost. [01:06:00] Hopefully when somebody comes in three that are. One of the things we need to be able to prove in joke, because we have established, we can train people at a high level of keepers, and then if we can do that, then you know what I mean?

[01:06:21] Any guys out there who,

[01:06:29] what I want to be able to get, we want to be able to, uh, to help you in that endeavor, that would be a happiness goal. Is to be able to be in that faith to be able to say, Hey, look, we have the bilingual language skills that we have, you know, professional, you know, professional training program. We can adjust the cater to your specific IRD, obviously, you know, from a school perspective where we would want to get now whether or not we get there.

[01:06:58] I don’t know. As, as a person who has to look at the business overall, you have to think like that the biggest rival. Yeah, of course.

[01:07:09] So the question is,

[01:07:11]

Aman: [01:07:11] yeah, so, so, so the question is if you can get to the scale where they don’t have to train 2000 people on their own and you can provide, let’s say a thousand, 2000, even even several hundred. Uh, people at once then that’s that keeps the school alive and thriving for a while because you will have proven the quality in since you, you know, given the li the focus on language skills and not just dealing.

[01:07:36] And since these IRS are mainly for foreign customers and for Japanese people as well, um, you think that you would have a unique value proposition as long as you reach that scale?

[01:07:48]

Robert: [01:07:48] Yeah, I think so. I think the, you know, the value proposition for us is we already stopped. Yep. So, you know, why spend [01:08:00] more money to go that infrastructure?

[01:08:01] They already have it set up. Right. I think that would be our value proposition. And I think the other aspect that, you know, longer term in terms of the physical product roadmap, digital product, if we can prove that this product has.

[01:08:23] You have set up other locations. So, you know, if an IRA in Osaka, would they be people who are in need that, that maybe not? Yep. Yep, yep. Yep. But for us right now, can that.

[01:08:47] Location there. And then you know that, and then people who, even if you pay for people to come and train, maybe you still don’t have the money to leave your home. And maybe your family wants you. They’re actually good quality people that if we set up a small location there quite easily, you know, we can solve a lot of that problem.

[01:09:11] We give opportunity. You can only do that each week. That kind of beautiful. Yeah. Cause

[01:09:18]

Aman: [01:09:18] like the big, the big companies can’t have the Starbucks model. Right. They can’t have this independently operate a lot of, uh, assets, uh, all over the country.

[01:09:29]

Robert: [01:09:29] Yeah. It’s not their skillset. It’s not their core business.

[01:09:33] Right. Even a higher demand. It doesn’t make sense. So I think, you know, the. We can get to that place. And then

[01:09:46] going back to pick on the bill, sorry, segue back to the roadmap. I don’t want people to think that hopefully we don’t die. We do. I mean then, you know, look at the, I mean, I mean our, our [01:10:00] population,

[01:10:01] um, that we’ve already seen. We’ve been fortunate.

[01:10:03] Um, you know what we’re looking for creating, um, the place where.

[01:10:22] People come together.

[01:10:23] yep, yep. Yep. Um, I should never say never, but I mean, I don’t think

[01:10:43] people buy. Know, we have a very defined niche.

[01:10:48] And again, like even, I think one of the things that are creating that sense of that somehow translate what we’re doing.

[01:11:14] yeah, because,

[01:11:15]

Aman: [01:11:15] you know, and just, just for, for anybody who’s listening, who’s, uh, maybe a little, not being able to follow what you’re saying. Um, So they have, so these big IRAs are going to come to Japan and they’re going to need a community of players and dealers, which they’re not going to just build on their own because it takes a long, much longer time to build a community, even if you’re building a casino or an IRA in parallel.

[01:11:42] So you having both, first of all, multiple schools, You know, in Japan, uh, multiple locations, uh, hopefully, and more importantly, a digital community, a virtual community all over Japan, which is obviously going to be nationwide of players, as well as, [01:12:00] uh, dealers will naturally, even from a very objective point of view, it’s going to give you a lot of, a lot more leverage in that industry.

[01:12:07] You know, a lot more legitimacy that will we like. Do you have, of course you have T big IRS coming in and you spend $10 billion each or whatever, but the players, we know the players better than anybody else. And it’s going to take you five years, six years to build the same type of community that we’ve already created on our digital platform.

[01:12:30]

Robert: [01:12:30] I would say that kind of, uh, yeah, generally that’s correct. I would say that most will be IRS. The big one before the global one, they know the players already, like the big player about creating the people who are not playing right for that community.

[01:12:49] I think for me, the most exciting things is to be building something that doesn’t currently have. I agree. Um, that’s something that. We just enjoy like the deal, something that, that isn’t, that isn’t bad to create something from scratch in a space that is new. Now, granted, you could argue that email is not a new thing and it’s not a new thing, but the thing is, yeah, exactly.

[01:13:20] Yeah. For me, I love that opportunity. I relish that, create something, build something from the ground up. And I think, you know, for us, we can build it. In a way that that has good intentions. I mean, I think, you know, because it has, can have a negative, like a negative image and we have very focused to show that.

[01:13:42] I mean, like, again, this is not to brag about us or, you know, I think any, any company, any company who wants to, why we don’t charge for people who are disabled or people who, um, who are single parents. I mean, single parents, we have. With a single parent student, [01:14:00] to be honest. And he gave you a quick story.

[01:14:03] He came in and, um, he had the money ready to go. He was going to pay us. He’s going to pay us back. You know, it’s, it’s been a struggle because we’re not, I mean, we are being okay too. I’m not worried about it a little bit worried, but not that worried, but image, he was ready to pay. Um, you mentioned dealing with single mother, and then you said, you know, that’s always a tough thing, right?

[01:14:32] Because, you know, she was pretty clear, like he wants to do something. He wants to be able to provide,

[01:14:40] um, to be able to pay for it. But, you know, she should take that money.

[01:14:53] And I think, you know, that’s the thing we’re trying to, we’re trying to show. And I think by building the community on those kinds of principles,

[01:15:00] having a past, you know, we’re, we’re building the industry from the ground up on a good foundation and something that will be, uh, Now, of course there’s the money aspect and the government, right? So maybe, especially with all the stimulus, you need more tax money more than ever. Um, but you know, when we look at the community, I hope we build the community that’s based on trying to take, of course having fun.

[01:15:34] Um, that’s very important. Um, yeah, translating that physical into the digital, I think that’s our main objective and injury kind of going down right. Right now in the process of developing. So obviously we haven’t launched it yet, but we’re in . I think, you know, once we’re able to launch that, you know, we can even do more good in [01:16:00] Japan site.

[01:16:02]

Aman: [01:16:02] Robert, thank you so much for sharing, uh, you know, your Nottage about the. Japanese, uh, casino industry in the iron industry. I’m sure that, uh, even though this interview has been long for anybody who is actually interested in that space, this is going to be a gold mine, like a treasure trove of information.

[01:16:25] For them to learn about it in industry. I don’t think there’s any there’s any, any other resource out there with as much, you know, uh, content as we discussed in this a one and a half hour meet our, uh, call. And I

[01:16:40]

Robert: [01:16:40] thank you so much for that. No, no, thank you. I just want to say there’s tons of people. I know the least to be honest, and there’s lots of people I wish Rocky could have joined.

[01:16:48] He would have been able to, um, You, I care so much more than what I, what I have been able to share. I mean, to be honest, I really don’t know anything, everything I’ve learned because of my temp fire, people who come before me and draw. Um, so if I said anything wrong, I apologize. Just because, you know, I really, um, uh, I’m really not the 15, I R a guy by background.

[01:17:15] I’ve been fortunate just to kind of absorb what Rocky and the. The people have propped me along the way. Um, you know, but I, I feel very passionate about our ability to do, you know, transform Japan. And I think there’s so much that we can do. So we’re excited about

[01:17:35]

Aman: [01:17:35] it. Awesome. And where can people find you if they are interested in learning more?

[01:17:41] Although I’m going to have your website link and everything in the, uh, in the description, but still, if you can, uh, plug something from your side, Yeah.

[01:17:50]

Robert: [01:17:50] Does that mean we’re on YouTube and Twitter and Instagram and Twitter, Instagram with the deputies at IRG, Japan, um, and Facebook as well that [01:18:00] we don’t, to be honest, we don’t really update it that much to change that.

[01:18:03] Um, and you know, I know you’ll put the link to our website and below of course, if anyone’s interested in particular, my focus is for some business development and partnerships and, and working with different companies. So if anyone’s interested, you can always find me on LinkedIn. And then my contact details are there and we’ll have a compensation plan, even if it’s just having a general pop.

[01:18:24] They’re very open to anything, even if it’s Robert, Robert,

[01:18:32]

Aman: [01:18:32] Robert, and I do want to emphasize that Robert is such a cool guy.  I asked him just, I requested him, wants to hop on a zoom call with me two weeks back. And he’s, he’s very, he’s very generous and he’s very gracious you know, helping out pretty much anybody while expecting nothing in return.

[01:18:49] So I do encourage you to reach out to him because he will share, what he knows with you and make sure to add value.

[01:18:59]

Robert: [01:18:59] Thanks for that. I feel embarrassed now,

[01:19:05]

Aman: [01:19:05] right?

[01:19:06]

Robert: [01:19:06] Thank you, Dropbox. Yeah. Yeah. People. Yeah. No, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And um, you know, hopefully, hopefully look at everyone, get excited about what’s coming for the future of Japan. And when I are opened, I hope to see people here enjoy it together. Not necessarily maybe, maybe at the casino, but definitely at the bar.