MGM Resorts expects Osaka-region locals to make up 54pct of visitors to MGM Osaka

MGM Resorts International expects Osaka-region customers to account for 54 percent of circa 19.9 million visitors to its under-construction MGM Osaka casino resort in Japan, according to projections outlined in the group’s third-quarter earnings presentation. International tourists are expected to contribute 32 percent of visitors, with Japanese from other regions of the country likely to account for the remaining 14 percent of the complex’s customers. That is according to the presentation issued on Wednesday, which attributed the estimates to consultancy Innovation Group and MGM Resorts management. MGM Resorts and Japan’s Orix Corp are the main partners in the JPY1.51-trillion (US$9.56 billion) MGM Osaka project (pictured in a rendering), Japan’s first integrated resort (IR) with casino, alongside other Japanese businesses as minority investors. Speaking on Wednesday during MGM Resorts’ call to discuss third-quarter earnings, chief executive and president Bill Hornbuckle said MGM Osaka was approximately 11 percent complete and “remained on schedule and on budget” for a 2030 opening. Also on the call, Jonathan Halkyard, MGM Resorts’ chief financial officer, said the company had spent approximately JPY114 billion on the project to date. The group expected to contribute a further JPY150 billion to JPY160 billion – approximately US$1 billion – in each of 2027 and 2028, completing its funding commitments, the CFO added. A separate analysis in MGM Resorts’ presentation identified an estimated adult population of approximately 23.5 million across local catchment areas covering travel times of up to three hours. Mr Hornbuckle said during the call that the presentation sought to illustrate MGM Osaka’s scale relative to other resorts, alongside its prospective customer base and visitors’ places of origin. The document showed MGM Osaka is planned to have 470 gaming tables and 6,400 gaming machines, providing a combined 9,220 gaming positions. That would be approximately 1.4 times the 6,612 gaming positions across MGM China Holdings Ltd’s two Macau properties, based on their gaming equipment counts as of September 30. MGM China – with runs MGM Macau and MGM Cotai – had a combined 750 tables and 2,112 gaming machines as of that date. MGM Osaka’s planned gaming positions would also be approximately 1.4 times the 6,408 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, using figures from that operator’s 2025 annual filing, and 4.2 times the 2,180 at MGM Resorts’ Bellagio property in Las Vegas, per the presentation. The comparison also highlights the larger role planned for gaming machines at MGM Osaka, which would have fewer tables than either MGM China’s combined Macau portfolio or Marina Bay Sands. A separate slide identified Singapore and Macau as MGM Osaka’s “primary competitors”, with Seoul in South Korea, the Philippine capital Manila, and Sydney in Australia, classified as secondary competitors. The presentation compared travel times from several potential customer markets, including Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong. It did not provide a breakdown of projected international visitors by country or territory.