Public hearings in relation to the recently released recommendations for the regulation of Japan’s young casino industry will take place in nine Japanese cities, The Japan Times reported earlier today.
Japanese officials from a specially assembled government committee will travel around the country from August 17-29 to inform residents about how the future casino resorts would be licensed and regulated.
As Casino News Daily reported earlier this week, the above-mentioned committee published on Monday a report containing recommendations and guidelines related to the operation of Japan’s future casino resorts. The report was delivered to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.
A casino floor limit and an entry fee for Japanese nationals were among the measures proposed by officials. Other recommendations were more concerned with the provision of socially responsible gambling services.
Under the proposals, casinos will have to occupy no more than 15,000 square meters within the larger integrated resort. That limit mirrors the one imposed by Singapore’s officials when casino gambling was legalized in the 2000s. The Southeast Asian city-state currently hosts two integrated resorts Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.
It is believed that there will be two integrated resorts to be initially built in Japan and those will feature one casino each.
What is more, officials called for residents of the country to be charged a certain fee upon entering a casino and to have their weekly and monthly visits to the gambling venues limited. Foreign visitors will not face such restrictions, as one of the main ideas behind the legalization of casino gambling in Japan was for a greater number of international tourists to be attracted.
Each of the developers and operators of the future integrated resorts will be granted a casino license for the gaming portion of the property. Some of the world’s largest gambling operators have been eyeing the Japanese market, although the proposed restrictions particularly the one on the maximum casino space allowed threatens to reduce investment in the projects, as pointed out by analysts.
Japanese officials will visit Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Takamatsu, Tokyo, and Toyama in mid-August. Some of the cities have already expressed interest in hosting an integrated resort, while others have remained more reserved.
Osaka, for instance, which is also bidding to become host of the 2025 World Expo, has been among the favorites for the potential construction of a casino resort.
A second casino bill is currently being crafted by lawmakers and is expected to be completed and voted on by the end of the year. Once this happens, the process for the issuance of licenses will be able to begin. However, it is believed that first casinos will not open doors in Japan before the early 2020s, as the licensing procedure is expected to involve heavy bureaucracy and actual development will also take time.
