The Japanese city of Sasebo, in Nagasaki Prefecture, wants its biggest theme park to return with an improved bid to build one of the country’s first casinos.
The city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry is set to ask the Netherlands-themed Huis Ten Bosch resort to resurrect Nagasaki’s IR bid, the Japanese media outlet NHK One reported on Friday.
The central government rejected a proposal from Nagasaki and Huis Ten Bosch in 2023, expressing worries about financing plans and the track records of potential investors.
But the chamber says that, if accepted, a new bid could revitalize the city’s economy and create jobs.
Several Sasebo business community figures have reportedly backed the plan. It also reportedly has the support of the Mayor of Omura, the city that houses Nagasaki Airport.
The media outlet said the chamber will submit its request to Huis Ten Bosch as early as next week.
Nagasaki Casino: Clock Ticking on Potential Bid
The theme park is owned by the Hong Kong-based investment firm PAG, which bought Huis Ten Bosch in 2022.
The chamber continues to actively collaborate with the resort on a range of economic and tourism development-related projects.
At the time of the 2022 sale, PAG had expressed interest in building an IR on a plot of land adjacent to the theme park.
Nagasaki authorities had also discussed a potential sale or lease of part of the park’s land to a casino resort operator should the central government approve a bid.
PAG has already made a move into the gambling space, snapping up a controlling stake in the Australian hospitality group AVC in 2023.
AVC operates over 200 pubs, bars, and hotels in Australia, many of which feature electronic gambling machines known as “pokies” and sports betting terminals.
PAG has also snapped up several thousand Japanese real estate holdings, including several high-rise Tokyo office buildings.
The company is hoping to spend up to $12 billion on Japanese real estate and private equity investments, its president told Nikkei earlier this year.
Government’s Three-Casino Plan
The central government says it will approve a maximum of three IR projects. It has imposed a bidding deadline of November 5, 2027.
At present, the government has only approved one bid – from Osaka.
Most other prefectures have expressed a reluctance to bid, with Aichi the sole notable exception.
As the deadline approaches, however, other prefectures are also mulling a late charge.
Hokkaido is considering reviving its 2019 plans for an IR amid a rise in tourism receipts.
Osaka’s IR is due to open in 2030, after construction began at the site last year.
The developers are building the IR on the artificial island of Yumeshima, in Osaka Bay.
However, the Japanese magazine Josei Jishin reported that developers have been beset by construction problems at the site.
Anti-Gambling Advocate: Problems Beset Osaka Casino
“The ground in Osaka, especially along the coast, is generally soft. Yumeshima is an artificial island built on top of a soft seabed,” Nobuyo Fujinaga, the head of a group that opposes the IR project, told the magazine.
Half of Yumeshima’s ground is waterlogged, she added.
“I’ve been saying for a long time that it’s liquid. But if an earthquake occurs, it could easily become flooded,” the activist said.
Osaka sits on the Uemachi Fault Zone, a 40km-long active fault line that could experience a magnitude 7.5 earthquake within the next three decades.
Fujinaga said some of the sediment that makes up the island’s ground is contaminated with high levels of cadmium, lead, and fluorine.
The city government has spent billions of Japanese yen on ground improvement measures to stabilize the ground.
But Fujinaga said she was concerned that the efforts “will not be enough.”
She said that the builders also need to remove 170,000 drainage-related items from the ground to continue their soil improvement efforts.
The question of who will pay for the cost of all this remains “ambiguous and unresolved,” the activist said.
The city says that efforts to complete the casino are going according to plan.
A consortium of developers, spearheaded by Japan’s Orix and the US-based casino operator MGM, says the casino will be one of Asia’s biggest.
They say it will house around 6,400 electronic gambling machines and attract 20 million visitors per year.
