Bally’s Signals Interest in Japan Market

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Executives of US casino operator Bally’s Corporation were in Japan this week and have expressed interest in joining the emerging Japanese casino market—although most of the reporting about Bally’s intentions proved inaccurate.

At least three senior Bally’s executives were on the Japan tour: Chairman Soo Kim, President of Retail George Papanier, and Vice-President of Corporate Development Christopher Jewett.

The misleading reporting about Bally’s purposes was largely the result of press conference on March 30 at the Hotel Okura Fukuoka, which was sloppily organized by members of the local business community, but was largely presented to the audience as an event held by the Bally’s team.

The relationship between the speakers was not clearly explained, and about halfway through the event the Japanese-English interpretation disappeared, leaving frustrated Japanese journalists trying to ask questions directly to the Bally’s team of American executives, but instead having them fielded by a local consultant who was himself not in full command of the facts.

What the Japanese media took from the event was that Bally’s was jumping into the process at the eleventh hour—two months before the national deadline for licensing applications—with the aim of opening a major Integrated Resort (IR) in Fukuoka by 2028.

This notion was clearly preposterous to anyone familiar with all of the political steps that would be need to be accomplished to meet the deadline, as well as the fact that the Fukuoka governor is already committed to supporting Nagasaki’s IR bid through a number of all-Kyushu organizations.

Moreover, a series of concept drawings for a Fukuoka IR offered by another speaker, Kelly DeVine of HBG Design, were presented to the audience as if they were part of a Bally’s plan, when in fact it seems that the US casino executives had never even seen them before.

As for why the Bally’s team was actually in Japan, it was simply to scope out the country for future opportunities.

Evident in their generalized platitudes about how “this area has tremendous potential as a host community for an Integrated Resort” and Papanier’s inability to correctly pronounce the name of the host city was that Bally’s has no commitment at this stage to this particular municipality.

The most enlightening explanation for the actual motives and purposes of the Bally’s executives’ tour of Japan at this time came from Jewett, who stated (though his message was lost in translation) that “we are aware that the existing national process to select Integrated Resort candidates will conclude at the end of April. There is the possibility that after the national government assesses the initial round of proposals, that it will choose to reopen the bidding process.”

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