In Japan and a trio of new firms are reportedly now interested in taking part in the request for proposal (RFP) stage of the attempt to bring an integrated casino resort to Nagasaki Prefecture.

According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming citing an earlier story from Nagasaki Shimbun, the southern jurisdiction is hoping to be given permission to bring a Las Vegas-style development to a 74-acre plot of land next to the Huis Ten Bosch theme park. However, the source detailed that the Kyushu province is first being required to select a firm to run the envisioned gambling-friendly facility before submitting a completed license application to a panel of federal selectors in advance of an April of 2022 deadline.

Significant shift:

Although most gambling is currently illegal in Japan, the coalition government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passed legislation in July of 2018 that is to see the nation of some 126 million people award a trio of integrated casino resort licenses. Nagasaki Prefecture reportedly looks likely to face stiff competition in this race for one of these developments with the communities of Osaka, Yokohama and Wakayama Prefecture having already embarked on their own RFP journeys.

Filling field:

Home to approximately 1.3 million people, Nagasaki Prefecture is due to kick off the RFP phase of its own selection campaign from Thursday with the new unidentified contenders reportedly set to join a list that already features four runners encompassing European gambling giants Casinos Austria International and Groupe Partouche alongside consortiums individually led by Oshidori International Holdings Limited and Get Nice Holdings Limited.

International interest:

Although the specific identities of the new candidates remain unknown, Nagasaki Shimbun did reportedly describe them as ‘mid-sized’ firms that had previously expressed a desire to run gambling-friendly schemes in other Japanese locales. The newspaper purportedly furthermore pronounced that two of these fresh contenders are headquartered in the United States with the third being based in Asia.