“I want to properly nurture the tourism industry in Osaka as one of its pillars,” says Gov. Ichiro Matsui of the prefecture. To that end, Yumeshima island has been set aside for a prospective casino resort. And Las Vegas and Macao operators 
have been taking the bait, and then some. “Tokyo has not raised its hand, Yokohama has not raised its hand – Osaka has raised its hand,” explained MGM Resorts International Executive Vice President of Global Development Ed Bowers. His company presented a Blue Man Group performance for a select group of 100 contest winners. (One was a PriceWaterhouseCoopers employee who earned a tongue-lashing for his luck.)
Less subtle has been the approach of Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Perhaps too eager, it has not only donated $450,000 to disaster-relief efforts (the latest in a series of such benificence), it presented a fireworks display only hours after Melco executives met with Matsui. “It looks like we are 
doing too much. But it just happened to be the same day as the festival,” Melco’s Japanese prexy Ako Shiraogawa said with a straight face. Lawrence Ho has said that this is the opportunity of his lifetime and seems to be blowing through all the ‘stop’ signs. Osaka officialdom is sensitive to even the perception of corruption: Reuters reports that solo meetings with casino representatives are forbidden and to say nothing of “attending parties, sharing meals or receiving gifts.”
Even so, casino execs have logged 119 official visits and Matsui has been on the receiving end of 25 ‘courtesy calls.’ For the casinos, Osaka is expected to be a $4 billion/year market (not a bad return on even a $10 billion investment) while for the 
Osakans it represents a chance to revive the blighted Yumeshima area, formerly synonymous with manufacturing and shipbuilding. Also, opposition to casinos stands at only 42% in Osaka, as opposed to two-thirds nationwide. However, fewer than 20% of Osakans are explicitly in favor of a megaresort. Other companies in the hunt besides Melco and MGM are Las Vegas Sands (which has been concentrating upon lobbying business and community organizations), Galaxy Entertainment, Caesars Entertainment and Genting Singapore. Considering that 11 million tourists visited Osaka last year, to the winner go quite a few spoils.
* The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas‘ resident chatbot, Rose, is already a winner with guests. In-house metrics show that guests who interact with ‘her’ spent 30% more and reported 33% higher satisfaction than average. However, Rose has received an 
upgrade, Cosmo brass evidently not choosing to rest on their laurels. “In her latest iteration, she connected to The Cosmopolitan’s casino loyalty platform and employees,” the property reports. “Due to her streamlined connection to customer data, once a customer proves his/her identity through Rose, she can then automatically tell the customer their points, tier level, how many points are needed to reach the next tier, current offers and more.
“When Rose is stumped, she transfers to casino service agents whose dashboard shows them the name of the customer and status as well. The agent can then text message back answers to customer questions.” The Cosmo has also redone its Web site, including adding ‘virtual hosts’ to address customer concerns. With all this AI on display, it’s more work for the techno boffins, if rather less for the conciergerie.
