Will Sands Corp Put In A Bid For Osaka Casino License?

When Japan announced that it had legalized casino gambling in 2018, there was a lot of interest from casino operators around the world. Market experts predicted that Japan would be the next biggest gambling hub in Asia after Macau and casino operators wanted a piece of this lucrative market.

However, there has been very little progress in regulating and issuing casino licenses during the last two years. The delay and the lack of transparency in the casino licensing and regulatory process have caused a number of operators to drop their plans of developing an integrated resort in Japan.

Japan will issue three casino licenses initially and all three casino resorts will be developed in different prefectures. Osaka is one of the prefectures that is keen on developing a mega casino resort.

Osaka Taking In RFPs In April

Osaka announced recently that it has started accepted Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from interested casino operators. Any private sector who is interested in acquiring a casino license in Osaka will have time till April 6 to send in their proposal. Osaka has said that it will look to process all RFPs and make a decision before the end of July 2021.

Osaka has also released its regulatory policy that outlines what the city expects from interested casino operators in terms of a proposed integrated resort. This will help casino operators put together a proper RFP outlining their plans for the integrated resort, proposed financial investment and non-gaming facilities which include conference rooms, tourism and entertainment complex and hotels.

MGM Resorts International and its Japanese partner Orix are currently the front runners for the Osaka casino license.

Will Sands Corp Put In A Bid?

When Las Vegas Sands Corp. chairman Sheldon Adelson was a live, he made it clear that his firm was very much interested in developing a casino resort in either Tokyo or Japan. Adelson was willing to invest up to $10 billion to develop an IR in Japan. However, he decided to drop those plans when he felt that Japan was not being fully transparent with the casino regulatory process.

Things have changed in 2021 for Las Vegas Sands Corp. Adelson passed away in Jan 2021 and the company announced in March that it was pulling out of the Las Vegas market, dropping the Las Vegas tag from its name and would now focus on the Asian market.

Will Sands Corp. go after an Osaka casino license and give MGM Resorts competition? We will have to wait for a couple more weeks to find out!