Only a maximum of three licences are to be allowed in the first stage of market liberalisation, and it has been reported one of those was likely to go to a smaller regional centre.
Tanasijevich told GGRAsia that the group – also the parent of Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd – was committed to a “comprehensive and compelling” bid for Osaka. He confirmed Las Vegas Sands’ participation in Osaka’s request for concept process, which started on April 25 and finished last Friday (May 24).
The executive described Osaka as the group’s “number-one objective” for a Japan integrated resort or “IR” as they are known in that country. Las Vegas Sands’ experience in non-gaming operations – particularly meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE); and entertainment – would enable it to make a strong proposal, said the executive.
“We need to be in a major urban metropolitan area to be able to build a strong and substantial MICE business, for instance, and [for] the scale and the diversity of the entertainment that we bring in,” said Mr Tanasijevich.
Such a resort would need to be easily reached from “major metropolitan areas, large population bases,” he further stated. “So that’s really what our focus is and our intent,” he added.
During a speech at the conference, he had mentioned Osaka, Tokyo and Yokohama as offering the kind of scale in which Las Vegas Sands was interested.
Regional centres could still have “successful integrated resorts,” he noted. “It’s just that our scale of investment and our type of operation wouldn’t be appropriate for those locations.”
Source: GMB / GGRAsia
