American casino operator Wynn Resorts Limited has reportedly closed its office in the Japanese city of Yokohama as part of an ongoing reassessment of its global operations brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a Monday report from Inside Asian Gaming, the Las Vegas-headquartered firm established its Wynn Resorts Development Japan subsidiary late last year in an attempt to help it secure one of Japan’s coming trio of integrated casino resort licenses. The source detailed that the company had initially been interested in bringing a gambling-friendly facility to the city of Osaka but later shifted its focus to communities in the nation’s Kanto region, which is home to the giant metropolises of Tokyo and Yokohama.

Stimulating scheme:

Wynn Resorts Limited is responsible for large casino resorts in the American states of Nevada and Massachusetts and also holds a majority stake in the operator behind Macau’s Wynn Palace Cotai and Wynn Macau properties, Wynn Macau Limited. The source explained that the firm was said to have been especially keen on the plan to bring a similarly-sized facility complete with multiple hotels, exhibition facilities and retail elements to a 116-acre parcel of waterfront land situated near Yokohama’s Yamashita Park.

Unforeseen exit:

However, it was reported that Wynn Resorts Limited has additionally spent most of the last two years managing the fallout associated with the distressing and unexpected departure of its co-founder and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Wynn. Such a distraction has purportedly prevented the Nevada company from being able to fully throw itself into efforts to bring an integrated casino resort to Japan and subsequently left it floundering behind rivals such as Las Vegas Sands Incorporated, MGM Resorts International and Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited.

Perturbing prediction:

Although Wynn has reportedly insisted that it is ‘not withdrawing from Japan’ with the closure of its Yokohama office, Inside Asian Gaming reported that numerous industry insiders believe that the firm could now be about to temporarily abandon its dream of brining an integrated casino resort to the island nation of some 126 million people.

Reportedly read a statement from Wynn Resorts Limited…

“We continue to be interested in the Japan market and an integrated casino resort development there. The pandemic is having an unprecedented negative impact on integrated resort development and resort companies such as Wynn Resorts Limited are considering how we evolve our operations to align with a post-pandemic market. Long term, we remain interested in the Japan integrated casino resort market and will be monitoring the situation closely.”