Bill Hornbuckle, president of MGM Resorts, told GGRAsia at an event in Macau: "We are still very optimistic. This special session is not the outcome we expected, but we will be involved by this time next year."

It was a reference to the National Assembly, which is currently the fall session of the Japanese parliament. This session is also called an extraordinary session.

There was hope among the casino industry and ruling and opposition lobby groups of Japanese lawmakers that a bill establishing the legal principles of a casino resort could have been passed by the end of this parliamentary session on Nov. 30.

This could have instilled hope that at least one resort would be ready by 2020 in time for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

In February, Bloomberg News reported that MGM Resorts could be willing to spend up to $10 billion to build a large casino resort in Japan. Several investment analysts have suggested that if the casino policy is pursued, Japan could become Asia's second-largest casino market, beating only Macau in gross gaming revenue.

But last week, there were reports that attempts to pass the revitalization bill in this session were abandoned due to a lack of time.

And on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced he would hold snap elections next month to delay a second round of planned sales tax increases and gauge public opinion on the matter.

Honbuckle said of the casino bill's prospects: "There's a lot going on ... but I think the main guys [in Japan] who have reached this point will continue to engage.

The way we approach this issue may change a little bit in the future, but I think we'll see ourselves and several of our competitors' colleagues participate. The opportunity is so big that it's hard to back down."

The executive also suggested that the lack of progress on the first part of the casino bill, also known as the Integrated Resorts (IR) bill, does not mean that the proposal lacks validity in the view of Japanese lawmakers.

He told us: "There are 51 bills submitted to the special parliamentary session. As of last week, one was passed. The sudden election brought the balance [of the bill] back to square one." 카지노사이트

Hornbuckle said: "There are some substantive [bills]. I'd like to think that legislation for our industry makes sense in terms of tourism, but until we come in January and understand what the new [government] line-up is, we won't take a position on the strategy of how and when we go about [casino bidding].

"There are still several [Japanese] officials involved in the process ... we continue to help in that regard. We will continue to focus and continue to work."