Japanese lawmakers are finalizing the regulations that will govern the licensing process. The largest casino operators on the planet are expected to bid, including Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts, Wynn, Melco Resorts, and Galaxy Entertainment.
Gordon refused to put a price tag on the company’s potential Japan casino resort, but said it would likely feature a large amount of MICE space (meeting, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions).
“In Osaka, it would be between two million and three million square feet. That’s probably eight times the size of Encore Boston Harbor,” the executive revealed, adding that the goal is to build the “world’s largest” casino property.
Encore Boston Harbor cost US$2.6 billion to construct. Wynn opened its integrated resort (IR) on the Macau Cotai Strip in 2016 at a cost of US$4.2 billion.
Wynn Resorts has previously told investors that it would likely be looking at an investment in the US$8- to US$9 billion range in Japan should it win the bidding war.
Japan’s decision to legalize commercial gaming is to diversify the world’s third-largest economy into more of a tourism-focused nation.
MGM and Sands – considered the frontrunners for two of the licenses – are respectively focused on Osaka and Yokohama. Wynn is open to either city and the Tokyo capital, should it enter the pool.
“Osaka is the most active city,” Gordon said of the integrated resort jockeying. The second-largest metro area in Japan wants to have a casino resort open in time for its hosting of the 2025 World Expo.
Yokohama only threw in its candidacy recently, Mayor Fumiko Hayashi telling her citizens that it’s an opportunity the city can’t afford to miss. “I’ve decided upon an IR bid due to my sense of crisis about Yokohama’s future,” she said this week. “It’s a big national project which could become a driving force for tourism and the regional economy in Yokohama.”
Source: GMB / Casino.org
