Yokohama announced Tuesday that one operator has already passed the city’s qualification inspection for an IR bid. No details on the number of applications or the name of the operator that passed were disclosed.
The city has been accepting qualification screening documents for participation in the IR operator selection since 5 February and will continue until 17 May, while results will be issued from 15 February to 31 May. Screening results, in principle, will be provided to the operators within 10 days of submission, meaning that this first result is for an application submitted on 5 February.
Operators who pass the screening will go through a competitive dialogue sometime in March or April (for those who request it) and then submit their proposal screening documents. The proposal screening document submission period will be from 1 to 11 June of this year.
According to an official, the selection committee will perform the screenings without publicly disclosing the contents. Yokohama is planning to announce its operator partner during the summer.
Of the seven overseas operators who applied to the city’s first RFC in 2019, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have both dropped out of the race, while Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Genting Singapore and Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings are among those to have confirmed their intention to bid.