The president of Las Vegas Sands met with the Governor of Osaka Ichiro Matsui and the Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura in order to discuss their potential collaboration in the future. The main topic of discussion was the opening of IR in Japan since Osaka is one of the potential places for this project to be utilized. Robert Goldstein presented the plans of his company about a possible casino in this metropolis, according to the Mainichi, a local news outlet. Osaka has been in the spotlight for quite a while now not only because of being a potential building area for an Integrated Resort but also because it became a winning bidder for hosting one of the most important events of the humankind – World Expo 2025. Other rival cities that competed with Osaka were Yekaterinburg in Russia and Baku in Azerbaijan. This fact alone was enough for many analysts to believe that Osaka would be a perfect place to build an Integrated Resort. Many stated that the World Expo 2025 would positively affect the potential casino in that area and that it would play a very important role when it comes to the liberalization of the Japanese casino market.
Mr. Goldstein talked about the success of Las Vegas Sands as one of the current leaders in the world’s gambling market. Furthermore, he added that his company was interested in creating a development plan for the greatest integrated resort in the world that would be built in Osaka. The casino giant currently operates in several places around the world, including Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore. Prior to the meeting with Osaka leaders, the officials of Las Vegas Sands stated that they were ready to invest more than $10 billion in the development of the Osaka IR which would include a hotel, a casino, and an entertainment venue, in addition to many other leisure activities. After the meeting, Mr. Goldstain gave a brief statement to the local news outlets, claiming that the development of such a huge project would require significant investments and that Las Vegas Sands is ready to make one such payment in order to build the integrated resort.
The other side did not remain quiet and showed approval of Mr. Goldstein’s plans, although they never explicitly stated that they would choose Las Vegas Sands as the contractor. On the other hand, they claimed that there would definitely be a great “synergy” between a potentially integrated resort and the upcoming World Expo 2025. The trade show will be held on an artificial island in Osaka called Yumeshima island (Dream island). According to the officials, this is the same area where they plan to build a casino if Osaka gets selected by the national government as one of the places to have an integrated resort. Government Matsui announced that the process of selection would commence in early 2019.
