On June 4th, Osaka officials revealed that they decided to put off one of the key phases in the city’s efforts to become one of the destinations to host an integrated casino resort by a further six months. At a regular press briefing yesterday, Ichiro Matsui, the mayor of Osaka, revealed that the local authorities have also brought some changes to the schedule for opening an integrated casino resort in the city.
According to the official announcement made yesterday, the deadline for the request-for-proposal (RFP) phase of Osaka’s efforts to host an integrated casino resort is set to be postponed by about a further six months. Respectively the date for choosing which private gambling company is to operate the potential casino resort has also been put off to 2021.
In late March, the request-for-proposal phase deadline had been postponed from April to July 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. The bidding process for the casino resort is being led together by the Osaka city and prefecture.
Now, Osaka’s mayor has also revealed that the city authorities are hoping to have such a venue up and running in the second half of 2027 at the earliest, or in 2028. Originally, local officials had been aiming at having an integrated casino resort before the end of March 2027, when the country’s 2026-financial year in the country is ending.
The Coronavirus Outbreak Led to a Delay in RFP Phase of Integrated Casino Resort Project
As the authorities in Osaka revealed in February 2020, the only applicant that qualified for the so-called request-for-proposal phase of the process was a consortium formed by one of the biggest US casino operators – MGM Resorts International – and Orix Corp., a local financial services company.
Local governments across Japan that are willing to become home to an integrated casino resort are required to apply to the country’s Central Government in order to receive the right to have one. As previously revealed by the Japanese Government, a total of three resorts are set to be permitted during the first phase of the local casino sector’s liberalization.
The fact that the country announced a nationwide coronavirus emergency on April 16th was the main reason for the delay in the schedule for casino resort projects. The Covid-19 emergency in Japan was fully lifted by the Government on May 25th. The state of emergency order in Osaka was lifted a bit earlier – on May 21st. However, the measures associated with the coronavirus pandemic has made regular business travel to and around Japan much more complicated to organize than before. The same applies to public meetings.
Other regions across Japan, including Nagasaki and Wakayama, have already revealed their decision to postpone the preparation schedule to host an integrated casino resort because of the coronavirus pandemic.
