American casino operator, Wynn Resorts Limited has reportedly announced that it intends to ramp up its efforts at securing one of the three integrated casino resort licenses that are soon expected to be made available for Japan.

According to a report from Asia Gaming Brief, the revelation came during an exclusive interview with Chris Gordon (pictured), President for the Las Vegas-based operator’s Wynn Resorts Development subsidiary, and included a disclosure that the firm will be primarily seeking to secure a casino license for a populated urban market although he did not rule out the possibility of a more regional bid.

Wynn Resorts Limited is already responsible for the giant Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas properties in Nevada while its Hong Kong-listed Wynn Macau Limited subordinate runs Macau’s Wynn Palace Cotai and Wynn Macau venues. Gordon reportedly stated that the company will be hoping to partner with Japanese associates for one of the new licenses and is most interested in those that are already well-respected and recognized in the Asian nation.

The NASDAQ-listed casino operator is also currently in the process of building its $2.5 billion Encore Boston Harbor integrated casino resort in the northern Boston suburb of Everett with Gordon reportedly declaring that the firm’s Japanese campaign is to include efforts at engaging directly with local audiences.

“It would be crazy of us to not adopt the local culture as far as language and communications, so we’re working mostly with our advisors on that to make sure we’re properly communicating,” Gordon reportedly told Asia Gaming Brief.

After beginning exploratory visits some eight year ago, Gordon revealed that Wynn Resorts Limited had wanted to wait to see ‘where the legislation was going’ before officially entering the race for a Japanese integrated casino resort license. However, he explained that the real possibility that the Integrated Resort Implementation Bill may be ratified by the nation’s 465-seat House of Representatives later this month had prompted his firm to substantially up its lobbying efforts.

“We didn’t want to be presumptuous and just sort of jump in and be ahead of what the government wanted,” Gordon told Asia Gaming Brief. “But now that the Integrated Resort Implementation Bill is heading toward passage, we’re already increasing the engagement we’ve got there and that, of course, will pick up significantly.”

Finally, Gordon praised the Integrated Resort Implementation Bill as ‘a good fit with the Japanese culture’ before proclaiming that he believes Wynn Resorts Limited will have an advantage over many of its competitors for a Japanese casino license due to its ‘very strong focus on high-quality [and] very carefully developed and run resorts’.