Casinos Austria in the race for an IR license in Nagasaki

Casinos Austria International has said it will join the race for a Japanese casino license if Nagasaki lands one of the IR (integrated resort) spots, adding that its project could include a Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra as a permanent fixture. The casino spa would have a special emphasis on state-of-the-art medical treatment.

Speaking at the Kyushu Nagasaki Integrated Resort Business-Connect Seminar, Casinos Austria International Japan’s Managing Director Akio Hayashi described the plans as "amazing" adding they had not been "seen elsewhere in the world," as reported by G3 Newswire. He emphasized that the company wasn’t looking to replicate the "‘gaudiness of Las Vegas or Macau" but that it wanted to create a “European-style IR” to suit a regional city with MICE (meetings incentives, conferences and exhibitions business) as a key.

As part of the presentation, Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz spoke via a video recording about what a great honor it would be to be a part of Nagasaki’s IR. Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura has previously said: “We aim to establish an entry point for IRs with a Japanese IR in Kyushu.”