Japan: 12th Casino Congress Members Association general assembly recently held

On the other hand, the Chairman of the Association, Koga, stated: “We are pleased to present our innovative video which will be widely used to appeal our efforts to the rest of members from 12 Ministries.”

Followed by Singapore where gaming ban was dropped in 2005 and has become the second largest Asian Pacific casino market, the Association states that they need to work together with the government to pass the bill that would allow casino gambling in Japan into law.

Japanese normally consider casinos as just gambling, but the entity aims to build “Integrated Casino Resorts”, such as Singapore, offering not only casinos but also hotels, restaurants, retails, amusement parks, MICE facilities, spas and such.

“We would like to share such ideas with much more people, especially having fixed concept on the gambling. We are planning to invite major foreign casino operators here and hold a big symposium to share information. We will continuously move forward to our goal regardless of political situation,” the entity states.

During the session, Deputy Chairman, Iwaya, reported: “We are pleased to welcome Tsutomu Hata, Yukio Hatoyama, Sinzo Abe, and Taro Aso, who are all former Prime Ministers, as supreme advisors of the Association. In addition, Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is now preparing to put the casino legalization as one of upcoming manifestos. We would like to gather much more supports from other parties including Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, New Komeito Party.”

“One of members in the Association stated that many private sectors are much interested in such beneficial business but they are unable to do anything without setting up a new law. They are seeking political leaderships. Over 140 countries around the world have legalized casino and gambling widely contributing to the tax revenue, employment opportunity and economy to the country. In that line, Japan is now far behind comparing the other countries,” states the IR Association.

Chief Secretary, Ozawa, concluded the meeting encouraging all members to share the video to recognize the goal and to rally supporters. The Casino Congress Members Association continuously moves forward to propose the bill to the forthcoming congress and general assembly will be held regular on every week from now on.