Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan has pledged that it will open an integrated resort by the end of 2024 if it’s chosen to host one of the first three IRs in the country. According to AGPNippon.com, the prefectural government’s IR Promotion Office made the announcement on March 7, and added that it will establish a review committee to choose the prefecture’s IR operator partner.
The local government claims that 20 IR operators from North America, Europe and Asia have expressed interest in bidding on a Nagasaki IR, a figure AGP said could be “a bit higher than the reality.” Officials also said one operator is discussing a JPY400 billion (US$3.6 billion) investment in a Huis Ten Bosch-linked IR.
The government further estimates that the Sasebo IR will attract 7.4 million visitors a year, create 22,000 jobs and generate JPY260 billion (US$2.4 billion) for the local economy.
Osaka Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture have also said they would open an IR in 2024; the former is already preparing for the 2025 World Expo.
In other Japan news, an unlikely player has emerged in the growing race for three integrated resort licenses. According to CDC Gaming Reports, pachinko operator Vegas Vegas may use its growing presence in Vietnam to help it prepare for an IR bid at home.
On March 11, the company opened its second casino in Vietnam, the Hollywood One Gaming Club at the Hotel de l’Opera. The company’s first gaming venue opened in December 2017 in Quảng Ninh Province. Vegas Vegas CEO Hideyuki Takahashi said the company plans to open 10 casinos in Vietnam by 2024, which could give it the expertise to enter the larger market.
Other entrants include U.S.-based Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment and Hard Rock International, which will open offices in Tomakomai City in Hokkaido in April; fellow U.S. operator Rush Street Gaming, which opened an office in the same city in December; and Canadian investment company Clairvest Neem Ventures, which arrived in Tomakomai in January 2018. Caesars Entertainment and Foxwoods have also expressed interest in developing an IR in Hokkaido, Japan’s largest prefecture.
AGPNippon reports that leftist opposition parties are fighting to stop the introduction of casinos in their communities, which could affect developments both in Hokkaido and Kanagawa and Hokkaido, which will hold gubernatorial elections next month.
Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa has lost the support of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan because he has declined to fend off possible IR bids in Yokohama and Kawasaki. But he still has the support of the ruling coalition and the centrist Democratic Party for the People. In Hokkaido, opposition gubernatorial candidate Tomohiro Ishikawa has made it clear that he will not support an IR bid. “I’ve been saying that I can’t agree to it,” he said.
AGB reported that Kikuo Sugimoto, mayor of Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture is enthusiastic about seeing an IR come to his city and has pinpointed a good location: a wooded 160-hectare (395-acre) site in the Oyori area. Residents are also behind the proposal.
