Macau gaming mogul Lawrence Ho is predicting that operators of Japan’s first integrated resorts will have to wait longer than usual to recoup their expenditure, suggesting a timeframe of more than five years for payback.
The Chairman and CEO of Melco Resorts & Entertainment outlined his expectations during a lengthy interview with CNBC earlier this week in which he again expressed his excitement over the potential for Japan’s burgeoning casino industry.
Asked how long it would take to recoup an investment touted as high as US$10 billion, Ho said, “Usually with these mega buildings the payback is probably three to five years and I think in Japan it’ll be longer.
“I wouldn’t say 10 years, but definitely longer than your typical Asian development. For instance, Singapore had probably a payback of four years and I think Japan will be longer but the potential is so great that it’s worth the wait.”
Ho also confirmed Melco’s intention to pursue an IR license in one of Japan’s metropolitan centers rather than a regional location, with Osaka and Tokyo among his preferred sites.
“We know [there will be] three places, we suspect that two of those places are going to be mega metropolitan cities and one regional and our interest naturally is in the bigger cities, because we want to build the greatest, most amazing, most technologically advanced integrated resort ever and only the mega cities have that tourism appeal,” Ho said.
“I think a front runner certainly is Osaka in the Kansai region, I’m sure there’s going to be a candidate city in the Kanto region, very likely to be Yokohama or somewhere close to the Tokyo airport but not within Tokyo, and then the regional city is very likely Hokkaido or Nagasaki or even Okinawa.
“We like Osaka or Yokohama, Kansai or Kanto equally and because I think at either one of those places the tourism appeal and the infrastructure is there to enable us to build a US$10 billion integrated resort.”
