GGRAsia – MGM Osaka at critical stage for 2030 launch: Hornbuckle

MGM Osaka at critical stage for 2030 launch: Hornbuckle

Mar 15, 2024 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck

“Between now and next summer is really a critical path and critical time” for ensuring Japan’s first integrated resort (IR) with casino, MGM Osaka, can stay on track for its promoters’ aspiration of a 2030 launch.

So said Bill Hornbuckle (pictured in a file photo), chief executive and president of MGM Resorts International, the project’s gaming partner, during the JP Morgan Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant & Leisure Management Access Forum, held in the United States on Thursday. He explained that up to the summer of 2025, the property’s promoters would be working on planning and preparing to start the pylon stage of the MGM Osaka work.

The CEO told investors, referring to the site for MGM Osaka on an artificial island called Yumeshima, in Osaka Bay: “What has to happen here is that we literally get into the ground with pylons.”

He added: “We are slated for midsummer next year to begin that process. That’ll go on for about three years.

“It’s a massive site that needs thousands of pylons. Getting that going will be the key milestone. Once we get under way there, a path to 2030 is pretty clear, pretty straightforward. So I think between now and next summer is really a critical path and critical time.”

MGM Osaka, which also involves Japan’s Orix Corp and smaller equity support from other local partners, is slated to have an initial cost of JPY1.27 trillion (US$8.56 billion, currently).

U.S.-based MGM Resorts is also majority investor in Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd.

Mr Hornbuckle also gave some brief commentary on the prospects for casino legalisation in Thailand. The latter topic made the news again recently, with reports that a committee of Thailand’s House of Representatives tasked with conducting a feasibility study on legalising casinos in the country is to submit its report to the nation’s parliament soon.

The MGM Resorts CEO stated regarding Thailand: “It’s early days. I think the real question for all of us [in the industry] is going to be… will the regulatory regime be at a high enough level that it holds muster? And will the [Thai] government participate in the proper way going forward?”

Mr Hornbuckle said that in common with other brands, MGM Resorts had “government relations and development people” working in Thailand, exploring possible locations and partners.