The first legal casino is set to open in the western Kansai region of Japan in 2030. Yet, fate has been the most fickle of friends in the Japanese IR story where the only constant is change, and every step seems to be into the great unknown. Industry expert and author Daniel Cheng outlines the current hindrances and expectations after a decades-long battle.

Genting Singapore confirms it is fully out of the race for a potential IR in Japan, noting in a pre-AGM release that the company ‘previously pursued a bid to develop an integrated resort in Yokohama City, but this was discontinued when Yokohama City decided to cancel the […] integrated resort bid process’.

Wakayama will exit from the bid for an IR license in Japan after its prefectural assembly voted against its development plan, while Nagasaki won the backing of its local legislators.

The mayor of Kuwana City in Japan’s Mie Prefecture has decided to take advantage of a recent change in political leadership to request an IR bid.

Like a delinquent child who refuses to follow the rule book, going astray is more the norm than exception for the passage of casino gaming in Japan.

Japan efforts to establish an IR industry face rising uncertainty as politics derail one candidate city and another’s selection procedures are called into question.

The Suga Cabinet decided on Tuesday that the July 2018 IR Implementation Act will become legally effectuated as of July 19, next Monday.

While it is still premature to say that Yokohama is definitely out of the Japan IR race, the events of the past week brought that prospect much closer. It is worthwhile to consider what the landscape would look like should this major port city in fact withdraw.

MGM President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle told the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Friday that, in his estimation, only two IRs are likely to be built in Japan’s first round of development, not the maximum three that the legislation allows for.

The Wakayama government has provided a glimpse of Clarivest’s winning bid for the prefecture’s IR development. It's a 569,000 square meters facility which will include international conference halls, exhibition halls, restaurants, accommodation venues, and a casino, and will be themed after the Wakayama region’s rich natural heritage.