Galaxy starts to eye off locations for Integrated Resort in Japan

Hong Kong-listed Galaxy Entertainment Group is on the lookout for where to construct an intended integrated resort in Japan, provided it acquires a license.

With Japan expect to start issuing licenses within the next two years, the Deputy Chairman of Galaxy Francis Lui said they were already making preliminary inquiries about seven different venues in the country.

These include Nagasaki, Osaka, Tomakomai in Hokkaido, Wakayama, Yokohama, Aichi, and Hokkaido.

Speaking at a media roundtable in Tokyo, Mr Lui said they were investigating all possible locations for an IR.

GUIDE: ONLINE CASINOS IN JAPAN

“At the moment, we are continuing to study all the cities that are interested to have an IR in Japan… Different cities have different needs or different requirements and preferences,” he said.

“Bigger cities like Osaka and smaller cities like Wakayama – each of them have their own uniqueness and own preferences which is why we need to understand more before we make a decision.”

He said the chosen location would need to have the construction of specific non-gaming facilities to match it.

“[I]n a city like Osaka, we would not be building a theme park such as a Universal Studios, and we won’t be building a baseball park in Osaka either because we don’t want to build facilities that would be competing with existing facilities,” he said.

“[W]e need to learn what we can do for each city—that’s our approach.”

He revealed that the group has not yet decided on local partners.

“We are always looking for good, reliable Japanese partners to be helping the consortium… But on a shareholder level it is something we can’t answer at the moment because like in any international practice we have to decide which partner will do what,” he said.

The first of Japan’s casinos are expected to open in 2022, although there is expected to be some live poker rooms across the country, before this date, with changes to the laws being pushed through during the IR Bill.