The 11th general assembly of Casino Congress Members Association held in Japan

This time, Shigefumi Matsuzawa, governor of Kanagawa pref., Toru Hashimoto, governor of Osaka pref. and vice governor of Chiba pref. attended as the representative of local governments seeking for the establishment of casino resort.

Matsuzawa stated in his presentation, as his opinion on the draft of Casino Act,  number of site shall not be strictly pre-determined, gaming regulation shall reflect regional opinions, government revenue shall be shared with local governments, various measures shall be taken to reduce the negative effect of legalization of gambling such as gamble dependence and mafia’s involvement, etc. He specifically explained the involvement of Australian casino administration bureau on prevention of gamble dependence and public disorder, based on his quite recent visit to Australia.

Hashimoto strongly argued that casino legalization shall not be regarded only as a regional economy’s recovery measure but also as the national strategy. He was also referring to the number of sites and opined that there shall be at least two sites except for Okinawa which is seen as politically special area, for the first round. He pointed out that selection procedure is extremely important since expected casino resort shall have a certain scale and such resort shall generate wide range of impact on multiple local governments rather than on single small city or town.

Vice governor of China explained its plan to establish casino/convention function at surroundings of Narita International Airport.

Based on the presentation made by two governors and a vice governor, Mr. Mihara, an advisor for the Association mentioned that number of sites shall be determined as a political decision to be made at the congress. Mr. Koga, chairman of the Association mentioned the possibility of the cooperation among Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kagoshima prefs. (in Kyushu island).

Returning to the comments made by Association members, Mr. Hashimoto emphasized that site to be designated shall be wide range involving at least a few prefectures. Following this, Mr. Matsuzawa stated that casino resort shall not be seen like pachiko or pachi-slot halls which are located nearby stations and that designated casino resort site shall be one in each economy zone so that establishment of casino resort under discussion will be like developing large city.

Although Association members’ attendance was not much for the closing of regular parliament session, many observers were attending because of two governor’s attendance and Hajime Ishii, congressman and the advisor for the Association, stated that Association’s work has not been enough compared with efforts and eagerness of local governments.