The process to approve the winning bids in the Japanese integrated resort race continued last week, when the two prefectures that will host the IRs brushed aside anti-casino opposition.
In Osaka, an effort to mount a referendum of local voters to approve or reject the IR that will be owned jointly by MGM Resorts and the Orix Corp. was voted down by the prefectural assembly of the Osaka prefecture. An anti-casino group had gathered almost 200,000 signatures on a petition to request such a vote.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura had submitted a draft ordinance on the topic, which required a vote of the assembly. Yoshimura has been a fervent backer of the IR so the outcome was never in doubt. The budget for the IR in Osaka is stated to be over $9 billion.
In Nagasaki, an attempt to audit the committee set up to evaluate the audit was turned away. A group opposed to the IR—Stop the Casino Nagasaki Prefecture Network—had alleged an $830,000 payment to consultants of the committee was money not spent in the public interest. The four-member prefectural audit committee includes two assembly members who voted for the IR and were appointed by Nagasaki Governor Kengo Oishi, who also supports the IR proposal.
The Nagasaki IR, which was won by Casinos Austria, is budgeted at $3.5 billion, but questions have arose due to the sale of the proposed site, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park. A Hong Kong private asset management company, PAG, reportedly bought the theme park for between $4 million and $5 million, but has not announced plans for the property.
