Despite the ongoing health crisis regarding the outbreak of the coronavirus, Japanese prefecture Nagasaki continues to push forward with its casino integrated resort /IR/ effort. The prefecture published its Kyushu-Nagasaki IR Basic Concept on Monday and informed it was getting closer to selecting its partner from the private sector.
The published document explained in details, starting from the background of the approach, the potential of the IR, its goals and outcomes, the facilities it should have and the functions it should perform, as well as the measures that need to be implemented to address concerns related to gambling addictions.
Location
Officials from Nagasaki prefecture aim to develop the integrated casino resort in an area that is nearby the Huis Ten Bosch theme park, and spread it on 31 hectares of land. By taking advantage of the location, officials rely on attracting foreign visitors to add to the domestic ones.
The close proximity of a population of 1 billion people, within a 1,500 km radius, presents huge potential for the IR project and a lure for the eventual private sector partner. Annual number of visitors is estimated to be between 6.9 billion to 9.3 billion, while costs of development of the IR is estimated to be between JPY 350 billion and JPY 460 billion /$$3.2 billion to $$4.2 billion/.
Gambling Addiction
A big section of the published Kyushu-Nagasaki IR Basic Concept refers to the problem of gambling addictions, outlining public concerns and awareness of the issue, as well as introducing measures to successfully deal with it.
Initially, the IR concept was meant to be published in March, but due to the ongoing health crisis stemming from the spread of the coronavirus in the country, the announcement of the document was postponed to April.
State of Emergency
The same day Nagasaki prefecture published its IR Basic Concept, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that starting April 7, a state of emergency is declared for some parts of the country.
Based on Japan’s Special Measures Law and in response to the virus spread, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures enter a state of emergency until May 6, to prevent an explosion of the disease and an overload to the public health systems.
Nagasaki is not among the prefectures affected from this unprecedented state of emergency so far, but if the health situation worsens, the prefecture may also get into the list and see its IR project delayed or even halted.
Regarding the choice for its private sector partner, as required by the IR Law, Casino Austria, Peermont Global, Get Nice Holdings, as well as local company Current have expressed their interest.