The Assembly of Nagasaki, on the Japanese island of Kyushu, has voted in favour of allowing the development of an integrated resort, to be operated by Casinos Austria International.
Casinos Austria was chosen as the preferred bidder lasty year by the Nagasaki government, but approval was still required from the prefectural legislature in order to be sent to the Japanese national government.
The assembly vote was 42/45 (93%) in favour of the plans for a resort at the Dutch-styled Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki. The park also features the Henna Hotel (‘Strange Hotel’) which, when it opened in 2015, was the world’s first hotel to be staffed by robots!
The budget for the resort is reported to be JPY483.3bn (US$3.8bn), which will be used to purchase the real estate and construct and operate the resort. Approximately 36% of this total will be provided by external private investors, with Casinos Austria contributing around JPY100m and Japanese and non-Japanese businesses contributing the remainder.
The Japanese government has previously confirmed that it will approve up to three locations for integrated resort development, with Osaka and Nagasaki the only two to be approved to date.