The government of Osaka is in talks with Caesars Entertainment, Genting Singapore and MGM Resorts International on plans for a US$4.8 billion casino resort.
Bloomberg reports that officials of Japan’s second-largest city met with Caesars and Genting last year and are scheduled to sit down with MGM in the next few months as a bill to end the country’s longstanding ban on casinos awaits approval in the national legislature, the Diet, with the support of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
“Osaka is crafting details of the resort plan so that we could embark on the project at any time,” said Ichiro Matsui, governor of Osaka Prefecture. “We’d need global casino operators’ involvement and expertise as the business is new to Japan.”
An Osaka resort could generate annual gaming revenue of US$5 billion, according to a report compiled by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. Union Gaming Group estimates Japan could emerge fairly quickly as the world’s second-largest gambling hub with $10 billion in annual revenue.
Las Vegas Sands, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Wynn Resorts, Melco Crown Entertainment and SJM Holdings are all expected to pitch multibillion-dollar resort proposals for Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities.
Mr Matsui, who also is secretary-general of the Japan Restoration Party, has identified a reclaimed island called Yumeshima in Osaka Bay as ideal for a gaming complex and said the prefecture is in discussions to that end with Mayor Toru Hashimoto. Land in the bayside area costs about one-tenth as much as parcels in Tokyo’s Odaiba area, which also is being targeted for megaresort development by several global industry names and by Japanese property giants such as Mitsui Fudosan.
The Osaka plan calls for an array of entertainment facilities and train extensions to the reclaimed island, which is about two kilometers from the Universal Studios Japan theme park along the Osaka waterfront. Mr Matsui envisions completion of the resort before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“Caesars takes its cues from both the local government as well as local partners, and accordingly, have toured some of the potential sites in Osaka Bay,” Steven Tight, president of international development for Las Vegas-based Caesars, told Bloomberg.
He added that the company has been talking with Japanese gaming machine manufacturers Sega Sammy Holdings and Konami about possible tie-ups.
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