News flash for Tomakomai casino in 2018 (latest first)

IR operators announced plans in Tomakomai

● Hokkaido newspaper – Tuesday, November 27


In Tomakomai city, where they are attracting integrated resort facilities including a casino, foreign IR operators started being more active trying to sell themselves.


Six companies published their development plan such as Caesars Entertainment, CLAIRVEST, Foxwoods Resort Casino, RUSH STREET, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, Hard Rock and some even talked about working together with Ainu people as PR is on the heat.



At the same time, Tomakomai city has not yet explained the details of those foreign companies’ plans to residents. Those foreign companies’ actions are significant in spite of the mayor not being able to decide on IR attractions as the understanding on residents has not been progressed.

Tomakomai city has been expressed as a priority candidate for casino attractions in Hokkaido by the Hokkaido assembly and will move onto the final determination if it is deemed attractive

● Hokkaido Broadcasting – Monday, November 26


Hokkaido expressed their thoughts that it’s appropriate that Tomakomai city is a priority candidate site at the Hokkaido assembly special committee on 26th of November as an IR including a casino.


Tomakomai city is close to New Chitose Airport and trial calculations carried out by Hokkaido worked out to be 156.2 billion yen in annual sales and 23.4 billion yen of annual taxes and that is more than other candidate towns.



Hokkaido will listen to specialists’ opinions and make a final decision on whether the concept is attractive or not, however, there are some worries that this may cause gambling addictions and deterioration of public order, so far signatures from 11,330 people against it has been submitted so far by the Tomakomai citizen group.

Plan published by IR operators in Tomakomai

● Tomakomai commercial broadcasting – Tuesday, October 16


There was an explanation session about IR plans including a casino by foreign IR companies held in a hotel on the 15th of October. Each company expressed their direction for management development while appealing on their know-how and performance record cultivated in America and so on and was organized by the Tomakomai IR promotion council (Hiroaki Fujita) made by the local business community.


That was the second round around after the explanation session carried out by two the IR companies, Caesars Entertainment from America and the IR investment company CLAIRVEST from Canada in August. About 150 people including assembly members and company related people gathered then.



Four companies such as Foxwoods Resort Casino, RUSH STREET GAMING, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment and Hard Rock Japan attended this time. A lot of attendees were local business people, so they all emphasized about the effect on the local economy if the IR went ahead in Tomakomai. They all appealed for regional cooperation as they want to go forward while listening to everyone’s opinions.

Governor Takahashi referred to the Casino Implement Bill at assembly

● HTB Hokkaido Television – Friday, June 22


Governor Takahashi said today that he would speedily consider whether Hokkaido will attract an IR or not when the IR including the casino Bill is approved.


Takahashi answered to a question from LDP that ‘I’ll speedily consider not ruining the time of progress appropriately and then make a decision’. He indicated that they will consider candidate sites and gambling addiction influences in the early stage if the IR Implement Bill is approved at parliament.



As Osaka and Wakayama are already working on attraction activities, LDP is saying that waiting for it to be approved is too late.

Collected signature of opposition is submitted to Tomakomai city

● Hokkaido broadcasting – Monday, June 4, 2018


On the 4th of June, collected signatures of 7,705 people who are against the casino attraction were submitted to the city office, so now it became a total of 11,330 signatures against the casino.


They appealed on how the environment in lake Utonai where migratory birds come would be damaged and on gambling addiction increases if such a massive IR was made in Tomakomai saying that ‘Casinos are easy money made from other people’s misery and you would like to use that money to stimulate an economy effect and try to activate the region?? Can you think about the town of Tomakomai in a gambling way?



Also, the representative of the citizen’s group, Masahiko Shinohara explained that ‘The IR Implement Bill is about to be up in parliament. We strongly believe that we don’t want any gambling places like a casino in Hokkaido.’ and Tomakomai city indicated progress of IR attractions while assessing trends in the country after receiving the signatures and explained ‘The country is on a process making the world’s highest level of standards.’.

Tamakomai Casino flash news 2017 (information is listed with the latest first)

Casino idea plans in Hokkaido and Kita Hiroshima Major pachinko machine manufacturer invests 200 billion yen

● Hokkaido newspaper – Thursday, December 14, 2017


The major pachinko machine manufacturer, Heiwa (Tokyo) indicated the IR idea plan including a casino in the center of Kita Hiroshima city on the 13th. The property of Sapporo Kitahiroshima Golf Club (54 holes, approx. 2.8 million square meters) owned by their child company would be used for that.


The opening of an IR can be applied for by prefectures firstly, followed by the approval of the country. There is potential for two cities and one village in Hokkaido such as Tomakomai, Kushiro and Rusutsu Mura and if Kitahiroshima is to put their hands up, then that would be the fourth in the same prefecture.



The CEO, Masaya Minei visited the city office and submitted a proposal to governor Seizo Ueno. They plan is to reconstruct the golf course that can be used for International tournaments and upgrade wadding an International conference venue, a large sized hotel, hot spring facilities, an outdoor art museum as well as a skiing and snowboarding facility.


Heiwa determined that their property in Kitahiroshima with abundant nature is perfect as it’s close to New Chitose Airport and in the Sapporo region which has more of a population and an economic scale which would be imperative for the growth of foreign visitor numbers for their IR business.


Their plan is to make a corporate group with a foreign casino company and a local company centering them on investing 200 billion yen for the IR which is estimated to create employment for 20,000 people.

Summary from 2016 to 2017

The IR plan in Tomakomai, Hokkaido started from the time that media started reporting it from 2016 to 2017 on various news sources.



According to the association for the promotion of Tomakomai IR established in August, 2016, the plan is to make the Tomakomai IR on a privately owned property located in Uenae near New Chitose Airport and the size of the property would be 883 hectare. The resort would come with Hokkaido’s abundant nature in an International way with luxury hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, a casino, hot springs, a convention center and other entertainment facilities. (sourced from ‘Hokkaido White IR Plan’).


Also, in terms of the casino, about 3% of the resort property is planned to be used for this.


Further to that, there are other plans such as a commuter road construction, solar power on the extensive ground of Hokkaido and natural gas from Russia for the IR facility’s energy.



So, Tomakomai Casino Resort is estimated by the council to bring 10 million tourists from both inside and outside Japan annually and to have an annual economic effect by direct consumption of about 158 billion yen, so it is of course less compared the big cities of Osaka and Yokohama, but still it is definitely drawing attention as an IR construction plan for foreign tourists.


On top of that, the expense of the IR construction would be a maximum 150 billion yen and the economic effect would differ from 250 billion yen a year before and after the opening of the IR based on employment and material purchases.