Ho, who previously said a high-end Japan gaming venue will cost at least $10 billion to bring to life, isn’t deterred by the delays and says he knew this was a long-term game when Melco entered the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I entered this race more than a decade ago, I knew it was a marathon and not a sprint,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, while COVID has certainly impacted development efforts in the near term, based on all the news flow out of the medical community, COVID will be well in the rearview mirror when IRs actually open in Japan in the back half of this decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Analysts and industry observers believe that when Japanese gaming properties fully ramp up, the country will be home to the world’s second-largest casino market in terms of gross gaming revenue (GGR), trailing only Macau, while easily topping Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
With delays forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the most optimistic scenario is that the first IR in Japan will open in 2026 and even that timeline is highly tentative.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO) CEO Lawrence Ho reiterated his company’s commitment to Japan on the operator’s second-quarter earnings conference call Thursday. It’s an affirmation that comes after some rivals ditched the Land of the Rising Sun. Ho’s comments were made on the same day in which Yokohama — the city Melco is eyeing for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":145786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Ho Says Melco Still Committed to Japan Despite Departures of Rivals<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n