Two US billionaires are betting on rival cities, Tokyo and Osaka, to be the first in Japan to open casino resorts — once the government gives the go-ahead to legalize gambling.
Japan is one of the world’s last untapped gaming markets and could become the third-largest gambling destination after Macau and the US, with annual revenue of more than US$40 billion, broker CLSA has said.
Japanese lawmakers who support legalizing casino gambling hope to see initial draft legislation this year, with the first resort opening by 2020, when Tokyo is to host the Olympic Games.
Photo: Reuters
In a race for first-mover advantage, 76-year-old Chicago real-estate mogul Neil Bluhm has set his sights on Osaka, while Las Vegas gaming tycoon Sheldon Adelson, four years his senior, is putting his weight behind a Tokyo flagship resort.
Bluhm, who owns casinos in Pennsylvania, Chicago and Niagara Falls, has a net worth of US$2.6 billion, according to Forbes. He believes Osaka, one of Chicago’s “sister cities,” has the kind of flexible local government that will help drive this project, and, crucially, has “shovel-ready” sites.
He says the whole process — from approval to construction — in Tokyo would be more complex, time-consuming and expensive.
While Adelson has not ruled out pitching for Osaka, he sees Tokyo as the main prize, given its highly affluent population of 13.2 million. The CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp, who Forbes says is worth close to US$39 billion, has pledged to spend US$10 billion as Japan opens up to legal gambling — an offer he says his rivals cannot match.
Sands, which has casinos in Macau, Singapore and Las Vegas, remains bullish on its Japan plans given the country’s wealthy population and proximity to China.
“We are very confident in our ability to generate a return that would be satisfactory to our shareholders,” George Tanasijevich, managing director for global development, said in a telephone interview.
He did not elaborate.
Bluhm shrugs off rivals’ talk of big spending.
“Sometimes people like to throw big numbers around in order to get picked... We have been more for Osaka in the US$4 billion to US$5 billion range,” he said.
Bluhm also reckons he may have an edge over the big operators in Macau — who he thinks likely prefer Tokyo — by working alongside local partners.
“In reality, they are going to want to totally run the project. They are probably not used to having partnership relationships like we are,” he said.
Osaka’s government is keen for foreign operators to use Japanese firms in a consortium or joint venture, said Masayuki Inoue, director general of the city’s economic strategy bureau, adding that Osaka wants a large casino resort with convention and entertainment facilities.
“Osaka is flexible. We’re ready to discuss anything,” he said.
The Kansai Keizai Doyukai, a leading local business lobby, thinks land costs in Osaka will be a tenth of those in the capital, about 250km to the northeast. And, it says, the city can offer a development area three times bigger than that occupied by Singapore’s two casino resorts — Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.
In comparison, officials in Tokyo, already setting about preparing for the 2020 Olympics, appear more tortoise than hare.
Industry executives worry privately that Tokyo is so focused on getting the Olympics right that there’s little momentum driving the casino issue. Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, a former Japanese health minister, has yet to say whether he will seek a casino license for the capital.
“We’re not like Osaka and Yokohama. We have not stepped on the accelerator and said let’s go,” said Yukimasa Saito, an official at the governor’s office.
A waterfront area called Odaiba in Tokyo Bay has been touted by executives and officials as a preferred location for any casino resort in the capital, but securing enough land could prove a challenge.
At present, about 14 hectares are available for sale by the city behind the headquarters of TV broadcaster Fuji Media Holdings. Doubling that would require re-zoning parks and buying land currently owned by a real-estate developer and Toyota Motor Corp, said an official in Tokyo’s waterfront development division.
The department sparked concern among some casino watchers about Tokyo’s intentions last month when it said it would auction a 2.7-hectare plot in the Odaiba area for a 10-year lease — effectively taking the lot out of the equation for casino resort developers.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS