Wynn names three potential Japanese casino hubs

dwide casino magnate Steve Wynn, who’s firm Wynn Resorts is currently one of a number of firms bidding for Japan’s first casino licence has named Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama as the most viable cities to handle the countries first integrated casino resort.

In an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, Wynn said: “In order to recruit staff, train staff, have access to supplies that are associated with resorts of the highest quality, you must be in a city, in a country, that can support such a place. Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama are such places.”

Wynn Resorts currently divides its operations between the gaming hubs of Las Vegas and Macau with the firm set to open a US$2.4-billion Wynn Boston Harbour resort on the East Coast of the United States in the summer of 2019.

Highlighting, the role of the Japanese Diet in determining the future makeup of the Japanese gambling market, Wynn said: “Rules and regulations make the difference between success and failure.”

“The government is always a partner in this business. In designing the regulations and the law, the government can make it possible for great success in the building and the management and the marketing of such a business, or they can make it difficult. Regulations, tax rates and all such things affecting [construction], the location of the building and the operation of the business all have profound impact on the result.”

The casino mogul also praised Macau’s casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau as being a positive force in maintaining the VIP casino market there, especially given the Chinese government’s recent anti-corruption drive.

Wynn added: “After a decade, the regulatory agency in Macau has become more experienced in investigating and licensing the people in the business. Some of the VIP junket people were not qualified, because they didn't have enough money to deal. Some of them were not qualified because of association. So the ones that survived are much stronger financially, and they all have been very carefully investigated. And that business is very healthy now.”



Picture: Wall Street Journal