GGRAsia – Osaka IR construction likely to begin in 2024: Hornbuckle

Osaka IR construction likely to begin in 2024: Hornbuckle

Jul 24, 2023 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck

Bill Hornbuckle (pictured in a file photo), chief executive and president of U.S.-based casino operator MGM Resorts International, says the company expects to begin construction of its integrated resort (IR) in Osaka – Japan’s first and, so far, only approved casino property – “by middle to late next year”.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the MGM Resorts CEO said the group expects to sign the implementation agreement for the casino resort in Osaka in the autumn, and start “on the ground, hopefully, by middle to late next year in terms of pylons and beginning construction.”

“We’re shooting for a 2030 opening,” stated Mr Hornbuckle. The venture has been described as a US$10-billion scheme located on an artificial island called Yumeshima, in Osaka Bay.

Hirofumi Yoshimura, governor of Osaka prefecture, admitted last week that it would be difficult to open the IR in a 2029 time frame previously mentioned.

He added that the time it had taken the national government to approve Osaka’s plans was a factor in delaying the opening.

The IR District Development Plan for Osaka was approved in principle on April 14 by the national authorities, having been submitted to them in April 2022.

Further agreements between the Osaka authorities and their partners – led by MGM Resorts Japan LLC and Orix Corp – on the construction of the planned IR were initially due to be finalised within 90 days of the approval by the central government. But the two sides eventually agreed to extend that deadline.

The Osaka authorities said a fortnight ago they had extended the deadline under which they and their private-sector partners would be able to terminate the basic agreement signed in February last year.

Mr Hornbuckle also told the newspaper that the MGM group would do a “full investigatory look into” any “large-scale magnitude [project] that draws gaming”. He added: “But short of that, Japan and New York are the two places we’re putting our foothold.”

A number of large gaming operators with Asia venues – including MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Wynn Resorts Ltd, and Genting Malaysia Bhd – have been linked to a bid for an downstate-New York licence.

Brokerage CBRE Securities LLC suggested in a note earlier this year that MGM Resorts and the Genting group – the two companies already run electronic games facilities in the state – were “front-runners” for two of the three downstate New York licences “given their long-standing history in the state”