In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Bill Hornbuckle, president and CEO of U.S.-based casino operator MGM Resorts International, said the company expects to break ground on a planned integrated resort (IR) in Osaka, Japan by mid-2024.
The $10 billion project, to be developed in conjunction with Japanese partner the Orix Corp., will be built on Yumeshima, a man-made island in Osaka Bay.
Hornbuckle told the newspaper that MGM expects to sign an implementation agreement with the central government this fall, and be “on the ground, hopefully, by middle to late next year in terms of pylons and beginning construction. We’re shooting for a 2030 opening.”
According to GGRAsia, the IR District Development Plan was approved in principle on April 14. The parties must now finalize agreements on the construction of the casino complex.
Hornbuckle told the Review-Journal that MGM group is interested in any “large-scale magnitude [project] that draws gaming. But short of that, Japan and New York are the two places we’re putting our foothold.” The company is bidding to win one of three available licenses in downstate New York, including one in midtown Manhattan.
Meanwhile, in a July 19 press conference, Nagasaki Governor Kengo Oishi suggested that the Japanese prefecture may make changes to an integrated resort (IR) proposal that was filed with the central government in April 2022. The local government applied to build a $3 billion resort with gaming near the Huis ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo City.
Nagasaki made its IR bid in partnership with Kyushu Resorts Japan, spearheaded by Casinos Austria, with an original opening date of 2027. That is likely unrealistic now, given that the central government has not given its thumbs-up. Osaka, meanwhile, the only region to meet with authorities’ approval, has pushed back its proposed opening date from 2029 to sometime in 2030.
Oishi says he has “no visibility” on when the national government might make a decision. “There is nothing I can say about how the examination is going on at [that] level,” Oishi said. “We as a prefecture should deal with the situation as presented to us by the [national] government.
“In terms of the financial estimates and the schedule featured in the integrated resort plan, we might make some adjustments, together with the resort developer,” the governor added. “In that case, we would have to consult with the prefectural assembly and the [national] government.”
The developers have joined with Credit Suisse AG, CBRE and Cantor Fitzgerald Securities Japan Co Ltd. as financiers in the deal. Part of the government’s wariness in granting its approval is said to be linked to upheaval at Credit Suisse. In June, UBS completed an emergency takeover of the Swiss banking giant in what CNN called “the biggest banking deal since the 2008 financial crisis.”
UBS acted “to avoid an international banking crisis,” the news outlet reported. Last Monday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would fine UBS for “misconduct” by Credit Suisse in its risk management of an investment fund that collapsed in 2021. The fines could total $387 million.
