Everybody wants to be in Osaka, now that it’s open for casino development and the Osakanese government strongly covets a casino, one hopefully that would 
be open in time for the 2025 World Expo. Among the entrants, Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts International, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Wynn Resorts and Genting Group. But the first two companies are tipped as frontrunners. In MGM’s favor is its exclusive focus on Osaka and its partnership with favorite-son corporation Orix. Whoever wins is going to have to pay the tab for public transportation linkage to the island where the megaresort is to be sited.
But don’t sell Sheldon Adelson short: The government of Japan has made no bones about emulating the model (in several senses of the word) of megaresorts in Singapore and Marina Bay Sands is arguably the world’s greatest casino-hotel, even if construction cost overruns made it seem like Adelson was going to take a bath in the Johore Strait. If Sands doesn’t win out in Osaka it has fallback positions. MGM, by contrast, has put all its eggs in one basket, so it really is a case of win or go home. As for Wynn, you have to wonder how the last 15 months of sordid revelations will go over in the Land of the Rising Sun.
* Speaking of Wynn Resorts, it still hasn’t said whether it will pay its $35 million fine in Massachusetts but is already bragging that Encore Boston Harbor will outdraw all Boston-area sports teams combined. Now, Bostonians 
love their sports so I wouldn’t go out on a limb like that, but there it is. Even if Wynn (which paid $20 million to keep its license in Nevada) wants to dispute its Bay State fine it had better have some cash laid by: Any appeal comes with a $35 million escrow payment. Trying to turn the page, the company issued a statement that “Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox and the board of directors have worked diligently to make the important and necessary changes to the company’s corporate leadership, governance, compliance programs and human resources policies.”
As for the casino itself, it’ll be a biggie: 3,158 slots, 242 table games and an unspecified number of private-gambling salons, along with 15 restaurants,
including a knockoff of Sinatra. In other business, Maddox quashed the Crown 
Resorts buyout but left the door open to other acquisition, saying cryptically, “While we are not pursuing any acquisitions at this stage, we will be looking at opportunities that you cannot replicate through development,” which leaves the door open to many possibilities. “We believe that Asia will continue to grow faster than the West and if there are opportunities in those areas, we will take a look at it, but we do not have anything right now that we are focused on.” So they’re looking but they’re not “focused”? OK, whatever.
Maddox left the door open to a postponement of the Beantown opening until June 30. Better that than the dreaded “soft opening,” which always translates as “We had forever to get this done but didn’t care enough to finish on time.” Global Gaming Business leaves open the possibility that Wynn will leave 
Massachusetts in a towering snit rather than pay its fine. Chairman Phil Satre has been in a sulk ever since the three-day Massachusetts Gaming Commission mega-hearing. Also, Mohegan Sun is working through the courts to have Wynn’s license voided. Presumably the Mohegans would prefer to take over a completed casino than start back at Square One. Still, Boston College‘s Richard McGowan considers that unlikely: “When you look at the legislation that established the commission, you see the commission has a lot of latitude. The suit’s more of a nuisance than anything. At best, it’s a long shot.” Let’s hope so.
* “The lottery could be operating sports betting on professional and collegiate sports at kiosks throughout the state by the end of the year.” That’s the word from Montana, which becomes the ninth state to legalize sports betting. Presented with two rival sports-betting bills, Gov. Steve Bullock chose to sign 
the one that placed sports books under the governance of the state lottery (a win for lottery supplier Intralot). Mobile betting is permitted … to punters within close proximity to lottery kiosks, which seems to defeat the purpose of mobile betting but, hey, we don’t get to write these laws. Bullock explained his reasoning as follows, “Montana needs to enter the sports wagering market conservatively-adopting only one of the two models now. If, in two years, the market can tolerate more entrants, then I fully expect the legislature will revisit whether a second model is prudent for our state … competition between well-heeled, international purveyors of gambling could lead to a fragmented market with competing sportsbooks spending most of their profits on acquiring players-leaving little margin for return to the taxpayer.”
Even though the Montana Tavern Association lobbied for sports betting, it was under no illusions about its financial impact: “Extra cheeseburgers; extra slices of pizza, a few more people filling seats. The actual revenue from the gaming isn’t going to be significant.” Others are so down in the mouth you wonder, “Why bother?”
* It will only take five days for Jonodev Chaudhuri to go from chairing the National Indiana Gaming Commission to becoming a Beltway lobbyist. Nothing against Chaudhuri but the illustrates the speedily revolving door in Washington, D.C., that Congress out to put a doorstop into.
