ISO local partner
Galaxy Entertainment Group Deputy Chairman Francis Lui reveals that the company has submitted a total of seven requests for information to cities and prefectures in Japan. The seven potential integrated resort sites include Osaka, Hokkaido, Nagasaki, Wakayama and Aichi prefectures and the cities of Tomakomai in Hokkaido and Yokohama; Lui did not rank them in any particular order.
“At the moment we are continuing to study all the cities that are interested to have an IR in Japan,” Lui said at a news conference in Tokyo. “We have had our office in Japan for a few years now and have been talking to, listening to, understanding various parts of Japan—how an IR would be able to help the local economy.
“Different cities have different needs or different requirements and preferences,” Lui continued. “Bigger cities like Osaka and smaller cities like Wakayama—each of them have their own uniqueness and own preferences which is why we need to understand more before we make a decision.” He said the company has introduced itself to the local communities “to help them understand a bit more about what Galaxy as a company would be able to bring to their cities.”
He did not identify potential local partners or confirm what kind of stake Galaxy would like to hold. According to Inside Asian Gaming, Galaxy has one European ally in Japan—Monaco’s Société des Bains de Mer—but a Japan partner also is a must. “I think we always need partners and in a country like Japan, we are only a guest of the country so we need local partners to be able to do an IR the right way,” Lui said. “We are always looking for good, reliable Japanese partners to be helping the consortium. At the end of the day I believe the equity and the responsibility should be shared equally.”
Speaking of Japan partnerships, brokerage Nomura has called U.S.-based MGM Resorts one of its top picks to win a Japan IR license, in large measure due to its history of successful coalition-building.
“Given MGM Resorts’ willingness to partner and its successful track record partnering with third parties such as Pansy Ho in Macau and Dubai World at CityCenter, we believe MGM Resorts is one of the best-positioned, if not the best-positioned global gaming operator” for a Japan license, the Nomura note said.
Meanwhile, Lui took the opportunity to showcase Galaxy’s track record. “Galaxy Macau has already become the number one IR in the world in just eight years. If you look at the balance sheet, we have over US$4 billion in our bank account and are without debt. So we are capable of building whatever size is needed. We don’t have any problem reaching any size and scale but we need to understand what a city needs before we start building.”
Lui acknowledged that any gaming company doing business in Japan will have to be mindful of widespread opposition to casinos among the public. A number of surveys have shown that most residents oppose the development of the nation’s IR industry, primarily due to fears about problem gambling and other social ills.
“We have to do it together to make the IR more understandable to the Japanese population,” Lui said. “Of course seeing is believing, which is why we always encourage people to come to places where there is an IR to see for themselves what an IR can do. It is not just about gaming. I think it is important that we try to explain the pros and cons of an IR to the general public to buy more consensus before we start building.”
Also in Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is preparing to admit up to 345,000 foreign workers by 2023—a plan that has sparked a “mixture of hope and fear,” reported the Japan Times.
In his column, View from Osaka, Eric Johnston wrote, “’Give us your strong, your wealthy, your educated, your prosperous middle or upper middle class masses, yearning to start but not finish their careers in Kansai. That sounded like the unspoken message. Nobody seemed willing to talk about bringing in ‘lower-skilled’ construction workers, farmers, and service industry employees.”
