Connecticut tribes Linking race to Get Japanese casino licenses

The federally-recognized Mohegan Tribe and its Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation counterpart are reportedly set to join the race to get the right to operate just one of a trio of integrated casino hotels that could available in Japan when 2021.

Based on a Tuesday report from The Day newspaper, the Mohegan Tribe already works southeastern Connecticut’s giant Mohegan Sun venue via its Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment automobile while the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is in charge of the nearby Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Rappaport allegedly told The Day that his recent trip to Tokyo represented the next time he’s travelled to Japan in the past couple of years.

“Likely every major gaming operation in the world including us and Mohegan Sun was [at the Japan Gaming Congress],” Rappaport allegedly told the newspaper. “We are looking at Japan no differently than we would look at any other wonderful chance, domestic or international.

The Day declared the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has long been trying to diversify its gambling portfolio and revealed plans in 2016 to partner in a $265 million match for Biloxi, Mississippi. The tribe has furthermore joined with Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment to establish the MMCT Venture automobile in hopes of opening the 300 million Mohegan Sun Foxwoods East Windsor at the north of its home nation.

Rappaport allegedly told the newspaper he believes it will cost around $3 billion to bring a new integrated casino resort to Japan together with the very first guests coming sometime in 2022 or 2023. However, he supposedly proclaimed that his firm will not be looking to ‘duplicate’ Foxwoods Resort Casino but is now investigating the best way to ‘possess everything’ Japanese officials desire ‘when they talk about an integrated resort’.

“We think the best path to success for any firm is to have Japanese partners, in particular,” Rappaport allegedly advised The Day.

For its own part, Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment also allegedly runs the Mohegan Sun Pocono property near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, while managing other gambling facilities in Louisiana, Washington and New Jersey. The operator is moreover expecting to start its $1.6 billion Job Inspire integrated casino resort in South Korea in around three years’ its Corporate Communications Director, Jennifer Ballester, purportedly told the newspaper there are numerous similarities between the ‘Japanese regional resort concept’ and her firm’s Mohegan Sun property. The Day subsequently explained these include the ability to draw visitors ‘from distant metro areas’ to a standalone resort situated within an area ‘together with small populations’.

“As a growth partner we view much synergy between our development in [South] Korea, Project Inspire, and also our future resort in Japan,” Ballester allegedly told the newspaper.