GGRAsia – Nagasaki January start on casino RFP, partner by autumn

Nagasaki January start on casino RFP, partner by autumn

Nov 25, 2020 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck

Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture intends to start in January 2021 a request-for-proposal (RFP) process to identify possible private-sector partners for the local government’s tilt at hosting a casino resort. That is according to a fresh timetable announced on Wednesday by the local authorities.

Between summer and autumn next year, the Nagasaki authorities hope to have selected a partner for an integrated resort (IR), as casino complexes are known in that country.

By winter 2021 at the latest, the prefectural authorities hope to have established an IR development plan in partnership with whichever private-sector operator is selected, in order to submit a proposal to the national government in spring 2022. If Nagasaki prefecture is selected as an IR location, a casino resort there should be ready by the mid- to late-2020s, suggested the local authorities.

Nagasaki’s new timetable is part of a public consultation – launched on Wednesday – on the prefecture’s revised IR implementation policy, according to GGRAsia’s correspondent in Japan. The prefectural authorities will be garnering opinions from the public until December 20.

The local government’s revised IR policy draft adds guidelines related to infectious disease countermeasures inside casino resorts. The document also introduces requirements regarding safeguards against gambling addiction and protection of young people.

Nagasaki’s RFP process had been postponed indefinitely earlier this year, a local official confirmed to GGRAsia on September 1. The prefecture’s IR tilt has been announced as the choice of the Kyushu region as a whole.

The signalling of the fresh local timetable comes after Japan’s national government said in October it was delaying the application period for local governments to make their respective applications to the centre. The national authorities have shifted the window for local-government proposals for IRs to an October 2021 start, and an April 28, 2022 deadline. Up to three such venues will be permitted in Japan in a first phase of liberalisation.

Nagasaki prefecture attracted three potential private-sector suitors when it held an earlier request-for-concept (RFC) phase for a casino resort; namely from late in 2019, to January this year.

Tokyo-listed Pixel Companyz Inc said earlier this month the consortium it leads, would focus on Nagasaki in its pursuit of a Japan casino licence.

A piece of land at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park located in Sasebo (pictured), within the Nagasaki prefecture, has been earmarked for an IR, should Japan’s central government approve one for Nagasaki.