Sega Sammy Holdings Incorporated pondering Tokyo move

The boss for Japanese pachinko operator, Sega Sammy Holdings Incorporated, has reportedly revealed that his firm could be preparing to overlook Osaka in favor of attempting to bring an integrated casino resort to the Tokyo area.

Osaka exhibition helpful:

According to a Wednesday report from GGRAsia, Hajime Satomi (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the electronic entertainments giant, declared that November’s selection of Osaka as the host city for the six-month World Expo 2025 is likely set to mean that an integrated casino resort ‘will be developed in conjunction with the event.’

‘Infrastructure development’ concerns:

However, the 76-year-old executive reportedly stated that ‘there are still some issues in terms of infrastructure development’ for the proposed site for the Osaka gaming venue that could well prompt his Tokyo-headquartered company to begin looking elsewhere.

Yumeshima Island plan:

Numerous industry experts have reportedly detailed that Osaka is a front-runner to win one of the three integrated casino resort licenses being made available following July’s ratification of the Integrated Resort Implementation Bill. The city of over 2.6 million people is purportedly keen on partnering with an experienced operator in order to build a large gaming facility on a 173-acre portion of the man-made Yumeshima Island in Osaka Bay additionally offering hotels, restaurants and conference facilities.

Closer to home:

Instead of Osaka, Satomi reportedly told GGRAsia that Sega Sammy Holdings could be looking to concentrate its efforts closer to home in the island nation’s Kanto region, which includes the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Chiba City.

Satomi reportedly told GGRAsia…

“As we are a Kanto-based company, we intend to keep monitoring the situation for now and think carefully about whether we should actively engage in an integrated resort development in Osaka.”

Imminent bidding process:

Sega explained earlier this month that it was still conducting a search for the ‘most appropriate partner’ to help it secure one of the three integrated casino resort licenses and expects the official bidding process to begin as soon as next year or in 2020 ‘at the latest.’

Majority interest aim:

More recently and Satomi reportedly told GGRAsia that his firm would hope to hold a majority stake in any such future casino development in Japan and could also look to finance the project ‘by building up our net cash’ while contemplating ‘financing activities such as loans.’

Satomi additionally told the source…

“Assuming we pursue a development in the Tokyo metropolitan area, it is possible that it will be a large-scale project and we do not know how much the total equity share will be. But we would like to hold the largest equity share in it. We need to ensure we have that level of investment capability.”