Casinos Austria International’s integrated resort approved by Nagasaki Assembly

The Nagasaki government selected CAI as its preferred bidder in September of last year, but the proposal still needed to be approved by the prefectural legislature in order to be sent to the Japanese national government.

Of the 45 members of the Assembly that voted, 42 approved the plans for a CAI resort at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park and 3 opposed it. The three that opposed the proposition were Sakamoto Hiroshi, Tsutsumi Noriko and Hori Kōhitomi.

When the resort plan was first announced, there were concerns from the public about CAI’s ability to finance the project. However, a “draft development plan” was announced in March, which detailed the operator's proposal to finance, build and operate the integrated resort.

The proposal also faced opposition from competitors, as rival bidder Oshidori International withdrew from bidding, saying that the RFP process was not ‘implemented ethically or fairly’.

The business said it had encountered “multiple suspicions of ethical fraud in the RFP process.”

The total investment in the resort will be JPY483.3bn, which will be used to purchase the real estate and build and run the resort.

JPY175.3bn of this budget will come via investment, with businesses including CAI providing funding in order to become shareholders of the operation.

CAI will contribute 60% of the JPY175.3bn, non-Japanese businesses 30% and the remaining 10% will be from Japanese businesses.

Elsewhere in Japan this week, the proposal for a resort in Wakayama was voted down. While the central government can approve up to three locations for IR development, Nagasaki and Osaka are the only two to be approved so far.