Wynn Resorts Quits Japanese Integrated Resort Race

Yokohama has officially lost Wynn Resorts as a bidder as the company is refocusing its efforts back in the United States and Macau instead.

Wynn Resorts to Miss Yokohama Bidding Process

Wynn Resorts has withdrawn from the Yokohama bidding process known as RFP, Asgam has reported citing another local media, the Asahi Shimbun. The report has been confirmed by Wynn for the Asahi Shimbun, wrote Asia Gaming Brief, another industry publication.

Based on that report, Wynn has chosen a cautious approach and scaled back its ambitions in the country temporarily to address the growing uncertainty over covid-19 and refocus its efforts on the domestic market in the United States and Macau, the media added.

Asgam quoted a representative who reportedly said that the company had decided to withdraw from the process as, at the current point, there was not enough time to prepare. Yokohama officially launched its RFP process on January 21, looking for foreign investors to bring capital and spearhead an Integrated Resort (IR) project in the prefecture.

The decision does not come as a surprise, and Wynn was already talking about withdrawing from the process as early as August 2020, when company CEO Matt Maddox delivered an earnings call and said that Wynn’s Japanese ambitions might need to be put on a backburner.

More Companies Have Withdrawn from Bidding

Wynn is not the first company to withdraw from the process either, with Las Vegas Sands deciding to throw in the towel as early as May 2020, citing an onerous regulatory framework as the reason why. Caesars Entertainment also decided to opt-out, caught in a monumental shift of capital through the merger with Eldorado Resorts.

Meanwhile, Nagasaki, another prefecture hoping to secure an integrated resort project, has announced that it had accepted five bids already. The names of the specific investors remain hidden for the time being, however, but we have already caught wind of some, including Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment which teamed up with Oshidori International Development last week.

Wynn first announced it would set up an office in Yokohama to participate in the bidding process back in December 2019. At the same time, the company announced it would invest $2 billion in a new building adjacent to the existing Wynn Palace Macau.

The company is yet to announce where it new interest in the integrated resorts in Japan may lie, and while the company has officially withdrawn from Yokohama, this doesn’t mean it won’t reemerge as a bidder in another prefecture.