Wakayama Has Lots Of Ground To Cover Before April 28 IR Submission

Summary

• Wakayama set to hold 2 public hearings
• 14 briefing sessions to be conducted
• Final IR submission to be made before April 28

Wakayama is one of the prefectures that is vying to obtain an integrated resort (IR) casino license from the Japanese government. Japan is set to issue three IR casino licenses to launch its long awaited casino gaming industry. Each prefecture has time till April 28 to make their final submission and then wait for the federal government to decide if they have been awarded one of the three IR casino licenses.

Wakayama still has a lot of work to get done in the next couple of months in order to prepare its final IR proposal for submission. Part of the ground work that needs to get completed as per submission guidelines include holding 2 public hearings and as many as 14 sessions with the general public which will be rather brief in nature.

The IR guideline stipulations make it mandatory for the public opinion in Wakayama to be submitted along with the IR proposal. The Wakayama District Development Plan will show the main investor as Clairvest Neem Ventures KK, who is set to invest a whopping $4.09 billion to develop an IR in Wakayama.

Big Names Set To Fund Wakayama IR Project

The Japanese government is keen to get some of the biggest names in the casino industry involved in their casino gaming market. Wakayama certainly has a case as some of the partners for Clairvest Neem Ventures KK include U.S gaming giant Caesars Entertainment and Mario Ho Yau Kwan, whose father was the late billionaire gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun who was the founder of SJM Holdings Ltd, one of the top six gaming operators in Macau.

Clairvest Group Inc. based out of Canada and Clairvest Neem Ventures will fund the bulk of this project (55) percent while Caesars Entertainment will fund 5 percent. The remaining 40 percent of funding will come from local Japanese businesses that have partnered in this venture but their names are yet to be disclosed. The financial venture will be primarily backed by Credit Suisse Group AG and a number of other smaller institutions whose names are yet to be disclosed.

Last week, Wakayama carried out a panel discussion with six academics to see if they had any concerns with the draft proposal and no objections were raised.