By Josh Resnek
Japan is opening up its nation to casino gambling and Wynn Resorts is lining up with the rest of the international gaming corporations to get a foot inside that nation.
Japan remains vastly underutilized as an international entertainment and travel destination, partly because of its distance from Europe and North America, but also because of Japan’s secular leanings – that is – the Japanese have never really welcomed the world to their nation.
All this is changing and fast as Japanese officials have begun an application process that is expected to really get going in 2021.
The Japanese want to bring tourists, who bring revenues, which contribute greatly to economic growth.
Wynn CEO Matt Maddox has said Wynn is looking to gain a license and will build, very likely, a $7-$9 billion 3 million square foot facility if given the chance.
This would be fully three times the size of the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor facility in our city which opened, of course, to great fanfare in June.
In other Wynn/Encore news…gaming income figures for August will be released by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on the 15th.
Industry sources believe Encore will report higher earnings than the $48 million reported for July.
Industry sources claim Encore will reveal higher income because of a number of marketing efforts that were successful during the month of August, and which should be responsible for a boost in income.
Wynn/Encore are in a three year plan to grow revenues to more than $1 billion in a year at the Everett facility.
Industry sources say it will take at least this amount of time to grow the business base of the casino and the hotel.