Japan has been committed to the idea of an Integrated Resort for a while. With the current situation with coronavirus infections, the country could easily extend the deadline for the completion of the project. The virus is spreading all over the Asian continent and original IR intentions are far from realization.
The Japanese IR project has been experiencing several challenges. Request for proposals should be submitted at the beginning of the year, but the entire process has been additionally canceled.
On this occasion, Partner and director of government affairs for Las Vegas Global Market Advisors, Brendan Bussmann noted, “No one knows what’s going to happen with the coronavirus today. If you and I were to sit down a month and a half ago when this started breaking at the beginning of Chinese New Year and becoming a real story, would you have ever imagined they would have shut down the casinos in Macao for two weeks? We don’t know, and I’ll let the health officials, the WHO (World Health Organization) and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), predict what may or may not happen with this. But I can see a delay in the process because of this a little bit.”
There is one more indicator that could cancel the IR process. If the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for summer 2020 face any delay, it will lead to the cancelation of the Request for proposal phase.
Since the beginning of the year, Japan has been struggling to open casinos. The entire process turned out to be more than problematic. First of all, the start of the year saw serious controversy when officials accused legislators of being involved in the award of casino licenses to predetermined city applicants. Following the situation, formal charges have been submitted against the former Liberal Democratic Party leader Tsukasa Akimoto for accepting bribes.
