With the Diet focused on responding to the worsening spread of COVID-19, the timeline for the central government to approve the nation’s first casino resorts has been thrown into doubt.
Plans still officially call for proposals to be submitted by interested local governments between January and July 2021, and for three of the so-called integrated resort projects to be approved after that. But given the economic damage already incurred worldwide from the pandemic, and the uncertainty over how long it will last, it’s unclear whether that schedule can still be kept.
Osaka, considered the front-runner for one of Japan’s first three casino resorts, recently announced it was extending its window for proposals for three months. The extension came after a consortium led by MGM Resorts International and the financial conglomerate Orix Corp. — the only group so far to bid — made the request due to the impact of the virus on MGM’s casinos in the U.S. and elsewhere.