The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Lawrence Ho has reiterated his interest in entering the upcoming bidding war for one of the three casino licenses which the Japanese Government would grant to operators.
Speaking to media ahead of the official opening of Melco Resort’s Morpheus hotel tower, Mr. Ho confirmed that he was willing to make an investment of over $10 billion into the establishment of an integrated casino resort in Japan. The casino and gambling mogul explained that his company has invested more than $10 billion in Macau to date, but they were willing to expand their Asian presence beyond Macau, so entering the Japanese casino market would be a good way to start.
As far as the locations for the Japanese integrated resorts are concerned, Lawrence Ho explained that one of two of them are most likely to be located in close proximity to a large urban area in order for them to attract more visitors.
So far, Melco Resorts & Entertainment runs five of the 42 casino resorts on the territory of Macau, including one that is set to open today. As Casino Guardian has already reported a couple of months ago, Mr. Ho has been willing to see Melco Resorts set foot further in Asia, especially now, at a time when Japan has been proactively working to legalize casino gambling.
Restrictions Revealed against Gambling Addictions
A few months ago, the Japanese government greenlighted the Integrated Resorts Implementation Bill which is set to pave the way for casinos to be opened in the country. The bill, which is currently subjected to debates and consideration, would officially permit casino venues to be established as part of the so-called integrated resorts.
However, the fact that the local Government is to open the casino gambling market has raised some concerns among anti-gambling campaigners and local residents, who have raised a red flag that casino expansion would result in increasing the number of gambling addicts in the country. In order to tackle public concerns related to gambling participation and problem gambling rates, the Japanese Government decided to impose some restrictions.
Apart from the relatively low number of integrated casino resorts that are set to be established in the country, the Japanese Government also decided to impose an entrance fee of ¥6,000 to local residents, while foreign visitors would be able to enter the casinos for free. In addition, Japanese citizens would be allowed to visit local casinos only three times per week, or ten times per month.
Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s CEO, however, described the opening of the Japanese casino market as “a priceless opportunity”, despite the restrictions. Mr. Ho reminded that gaming areas occupy only 5% of facility space at Melco-branded resorts. This space could be reduced to 3% of the overall resort’s space in case that one is established in Japan. He further added it was unfortunate that a large percentage of the country’s population still associated integrated resorts with some mechanical games and arcades, and explained that integrated resorts offer much more to do than gambling.
- Author
Olivia Cole
