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MGM & Orix Submit US$9.1 Billion Bid for Osaka IR

UPDATE: Osaka Prefecture has selected MGM and Orix for the Integrated Resort. Osaka will submit the proposal to the Japanese national government in April 2022.

MGM Resorts Int’l. and its Japanese partner, Orix Corp., has officially applied for the right to spend one trillion Japanese Yen to build an integrated resort (“IR”) on Yumeshima Island in Osaka. There are obviously many steps to go, but it looks like the US$9.07 billion casino complex will eventually be approved: The Governor immediately said the plans are in line with what the government had envisaged. Of course, it also helps that MGM-Orix is the only bidder left standing.

Most of the discussion in the gaming industry centered on the extended timeline: Instead of 2025, when there will be a World Expo, the IR won’t open until 2028, or even 2030. Local businesses are no longer enthusiastic; according to Asia Gaming Brief, “when the Osaka City Government made a tender offering for the development and maintenance of a 2,000 square meter plot of land around the under-construction Yumeshima subway station, not a single local company stepped forward to make a bid.” And the proposed IR was actually scaled-down, from an expected US$10 Billion.

No one is openly asking the big question: Can a US$9.07 billion casino make money?

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