Japan has been in the epicenter of casino news for quite a while now due to the whole Integrated Resort saga that has been happening there. The first chapter ended with Japanese Upper House voting for the Bill that approves building three big integrated resorts in this country. However, this was a great cliffhanger for the second season which started recently and stars all the big casino companies who are doing everything they can in order to become the sole owner of the license for building IRs.
But there is a couple of new characters – the Japanese municipalities. According to their local media outlet called Nihon Keizai Shinbun, the 40 municipalities are all interested in joining in the bidding process that will take place soon. As the bill states, only three municipalities would get to host the IRs as there will be no additional approvals of IRs for the next five to seven years.
At the beginning of August, there was a meeting in the Cabinet of Japan which was called the “IR Explanation Meeting” and it hosted the governments from the local municipalities, as well as the tourism officials. It turned out that a lot of people showed up and showed a lot of interest in this opportunity. This only meant that the licensing process is going to be a difficult and long one.
How It All Works
However, the Cabinet does not want to waste time and want to put everything into action as soon as possible. Therefore, they stated that the selection of the finalists for the three IRs that should initially be built should end fast. They added that all the municipalities that wanted to partake in the bidding process should make the necessary preparations for their bid to be accepted. The whole process of selection will be divided into rounds, and many believe some of the municipalities will quit the process after the first round. However, the media outlet from Japan states that not all 40 municipalities will be considered by the officials that will grant the license.
It all comes down actually to just a couple of municipalities that are likely to receive this great opportunity to have an IR built on their land. Osaka is the place that is mostly mentioned nowadays as the primary choice, and some of the big Casino companies already started helping the locals and officials from Osaka by organizing various free events and giving donations to charities in the city.
The governor of Osaka seems to know all this and has been actively advocating for the faster bidding process and overall selection speed. Apart from Osaka, the most probable places for building other two IRs are probably Yokohama and Tokyo. The gambling will not become available soon in Japan, as the process of selecting the casino company that will operate in these municipalities will be a much more difficult choice.
