Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The leaders of the major Okada Manila casino resort in the Philippines have reaffirmed that they are seeking investment opportunities in their original home market of Japan.
Jason Ader, chairman and chief executive officer of 26 Capital Acquisition Corporation, confirmed that the company plans to pursue casino investment opportunities in Japan.
The background to the announcement is rather complex.
The story begins with Kazuo Okada, a Japanese businessman, who founded in 1969 what is now called Universal Entertainment Corporation, a major producer of pachinko and pachislot machines, slot machines, arcade games, and other gaming products.
Okada, now a billionaire, in 2002 became a co-founder with Steve Wynn of the major casino firm Wynn Resorts.
In 2008, Okada separately founded Tiger Resort, Leisure & Entertainment in the Philippines and began the process of constructing of the Okada Manila casino resort, today valued at US$2.6 billion.
However, Okada himself lost control of his companies in 2017 after he was accused of embezzling money from his own firm, and his ex-wife and children voted him out of executive office.
This week, it was announced that Universal Entertainment, including Tiger Resort and its Okada Manila resort, would be merged with Ader’s 26 Capital Acquisition Corporation, and in the process will gain listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.
The new entity—once the merger is formalized next year—will be about 88% owned by Universal Entertainment, which remains a Japanese company.
During the pre-2017 Kazuo Okada era, it had always been his ambition that Universal Entertainment would enter the Japan casino business, once it was legalized.
After Okada was dethroned, the new company leaders took an ambiguous stance, perhaps in tacit acknowledgement that their ongoing legal battles with Kazuo Okada and the resulting taint of scandal made it virtually impossible that Japanese government regulators would accept them as an Integrated Resort (IR) operator.
The latest merger may be part of an attempt to finally turn the page and move on to a new chapter as a US-listed company, thus making an eventual entry to the Japan IR market a more plausible prospect.
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