In Japan, Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi is due to announce that the city will seek to host a major urban IR at the 47-hectare Yamashita Pier location.
Since January 2017, Hayashi had professed to be a “blank slate” on the issue and only last month she said that any decision would have to wait until the national government had issued the more detailed regulations guiding the new industry, expected by the end of year.
The city is expected to seek a Y260m (about US$2.5m) supplementary budget in September for IR-related expenses, including the establishment of an expanded team of city officials to manage the policy.
Yokohama’s entry to the race shakes up the field and will come as very bad news for candidate locations such as Tomakomai, Wakayama and Sasebo, which presumably will be fighting among each other for only a single IR licence to be given to a local municipality.
On the other hand, Hayashi’s open campaign for an IR licence is nearly certain to bring a ferocious response from anti-casino forces in Kanagawa Prefecture and it is not clear how the opposition of Yokohama Harbor Transport Association chairman Yukio Fujiki will be overcome.
At least six IR major operators are expected to bid to partner with Yokohama: Caesars, Galaxy, Genting, Melco, Sega Sammy and Wynn Resorts. It is also feasible that Las Vegas Sands will backtrack from its recent commitments to focus only on Osaka. It seems highly unlikely that MGM will do the same in light of the deeper roots of its “Osaka first” policy.
Source: Asia Gaming Brief
