James Joseph Murren - MGM Resorts International
Management
Well, also fresh off a plane from there. Bill Hornbuckle and I were there last week. Yes, there's been some very positive commentary around Japan and around the possibility that the Diet would introduce and perhaps pass what they call the Promotion Act. We'll know within the next few weeks if that occurs. And the signs today are favorable that the Promotion Act would be passed. Well, now what does that mean? It means that the bureaucratic machine gets geared into high gear and that the bureaucratic machine works on what's called the Implementation Act and they have a year to do that. In the meantime, Japanese companies, Western and other international companies, will work very hard to try to find the best path forward to present the most compelling RFP for a particular market. The markets you hear about most often are Osaka, Greater Tokyo, because there are multiple locations there, and Yokohama. Those would be the three large metro markets. There's likely also going be opportunities if this were to pass in some of the smaller regional markets to create a more comprehensive opportunity for Japan. If an operator tells you they have an inside track on a particular market, let's say Osaka, for example, they're wrong. No one has an inside track and no one has been more involved in Japan than we have, although we do see Las Vegas Sands there often, Wynn and many others. We're highly confident that if this were to happen, it will be done in an extraordinarily transparent, very deliberate way, a uniquely Japanese way and that you'll have plenty opportunities to game theory where integrated resorts could be and who would be able to participate in them. I have high confidence that MGM is going be a front-runner in one of these markets. We're certainly putting in the time and the effort to do that. And the reason why we all are, whether you're from Malaysia, or Australia, or the United States or in Japan, the reason why everyone's spending the time on this is that the potential is absolutely enormous. It would dwarf the Singapore market in size and could be extraordinarily lucrative for all the investors, real estate and operators alike. So stay tuned. If the Promotion Act is passed, that's a highly, highly positive sign. It means that the machinery of Japan is in motion and that the Implementation Act has a very high chance of being approved, which would mean you'd see RFPs in local jurisdictions starting to develop their own framework and integrated resorts could emerge as early as 2022, 2023, 2024.