The three-week Request for Proposal (RFP) explanatory meeting period hosted by Nagasaki with its candidate IR operators has come to an end, with the prefecture telling Inside Asian Gaming, “Many face-to-face meetings were held right up to the last day and we exchanged some very meaningful opinions.”
The current plan, according to Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura, is to start the RFP process this summer and to select its operator partner in the winter. Once an IR operator has been selected, the operator and the prefecture will spend several months preparing an implementation plan to be submitted to the national government in 2021.
In an email to IAG on Wednesday, Nagasaki prefecture explained, “These explanatory meetings were an important step as a prefecture to prepare for the RFP, make sure the potential RFP participants were clear on Nagasaki prefecture’s procedure and requirements relating to IR development.
“Information packages specific for these meetings were provided to participants and a wide range of topics were discussed. Further, the briefings were also a great opportunity to hear first-hand the operational situations of the participants, especially considering that the global gaming industry is only now gradually re-opening after a long period of closure.
“In order to select the best IR partner for the prefecture and the local community, Nagasaki prefecture will continue to keep an open dialogue until the start of the RFP process, with full consideration for domestic and international situations.”
Hong Kong’s Oshidori International Holdings, Japanese firm Current Corp and Casinos Austria International are the three contenders at this stage to develop a Nagasaki IR.