Casinos Austria wins bid to develop Nagasaki IR in Japan

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asinos Austria International in Japan has become the Integrated Resort (IR) partner of Nagasaki Prefecture for the development of the Huis Ten Bosch site in Sasebo city. This means that three of the four local governments that are planning to apply for the three available casino resort licenses to be offered by the central government next year now have selected their consortium partners.

Casinos Austria International was the only state-owned casino firm that joined Japan’s IR race.

Although no further details have been revealed about Casinos Austria’s plan for the Nagasaki IR, the inaugural president of the Japan branch, Akio Hayashi, had initially said the casino would be the world’s first IR facility to include a medical mall, adding that the project could also include a Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra as a permanent fixture.

Last week, Oshidori International Development dropped out of the race due to “restrictive and unreasonable rules imposed by Nagasaki Prefecture” and “serious ethical irregularities.” Oshidori had led the process after the first round before Casinos Austria finished on top in final counting. The announcement from Nagasaki Prefecture issued on Tuesday indicates that Oshidori was the runner-up in the race, with the Taiwanese-Japanese consortium Niki Chyau Fwu (Parkview) Group placing third. All three companies had provided their final presentations last Wednesday.

Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura, said: “I sincerely thank all that have taken part in this procedure during a very trying time in the world, and would like to express gratitude for the excellent proposals which put on full display the unique features of the operators. Going forward, our next course of action is to come to a master agreement with the priority negotiation rights holder. The prefecture will continue its efforts toward receiving national approval for developing an integrated resort in Nagasaki,” reports the Akihabara News.