Brief news about the casino in 2018

Okinawa prefecture plans MICE, Hosoda from LDP has its own theory on excluding Okinawan people from its use

● Ryukyu Shimpo – Wednesday, November 14


LDP member Hiroyuki Hosoda, the chairman of the Churaumi parliamentary group mentioned on the 13th at the beginning of a joint conference between the LDP Okinawa promotion survey committee and the Churaumi parliamentary group that ‘MICE should be made with an IR.’ and indeed a large MICE facility for what Okinawa prefecture is planning. Based on that, he emphasized that the IR should be made even with the exclusion of resident use.


Hosoda can provide a political voice in terms of Okinawa promotions and he did question about Okinawa prefecture wanting to attract only MICE as they are against the introduction of a casino, so that seems to have caused a stir.



Hosoda said himself that this is his personal opinion that he mentioned. He said that having MICE without an IR is not unlikely when looking around the world and he preached how important it is to make a casino together with MICE. Hosoda is also the chairman of the International tourism industry promotion parliamentary group where they are all party groups aiming to open an IR, so this may be part of backing up the IR for that reason.


Seiji Tomikawa, the vice governor said that applying for an IR is unlikely.

A chinese company and an British company visited Okinawa for inspection, seeking collaboration with businesses in the prefecture

● Ryukyu Shimpo – Tuesday, July 24


A Chinese Internet company, 550.com (Zhengming Pan, the CEO) who is aiming to develop an IR business in Okinawa and the British casino company, Les Ambassadeurs Club & Casino (Kevin McGowen, the CEO) visited Okinawa on the 21st and started inspecting the tourism facilities and meeting related notable members and head people of the company for the IR plan.


Pan revealed his thoughts that he wants to develop the IR business with businesses in Okinawa together and Les Ambassadeurs Club & Casino when he visited Ryukyu Shimpo, the newspaper on the 23rd.



500.com held a symposium last August in Naha city, Okinawa. They clarified how they are planning to invest a maximum of 300 billion yen for IR preparations.


Les Ambassadeurs Club & Casino operate a member only casino club in England for ultra wealthy class people and their sales is the best in the country and the total bet amount before October in 2017 was 1,330 billion yen. Their casino in London is a place where there was a hunting lodge used by Henry VIII and the Royal family and politicians visit there.

Brief news about the casino in 2016

USJ withdrawals from entering Okinawa

● Ryukyu Shimpo – Thursday, May 12


The USJ, the American movie theme park operator of Universal Studios Japan (in Osaka city) officially announced to the prefecture and government their withdrawal from plans to enter Okinawa.


They reviewed their business last November as the parent company was changed, so as a result of that, they made a decision on the second theme park construction as they want to focus on investing management resources into the existing park in Osaka.

Summary before 2015

Speaking of casino news, what became a big topic in 2014 was the construction plan of Okinawa Casino.



Okinawa has always been considered as a place for an IR attraction including a casino when casinos were approved in Japan and so it’s been attractive for foreign companies such as the largest European casino operator, Casino Austria International (CAI) who contributed hugely to the casino legalization in Switzerland in July, 2004.


When the idea of casinos being legalized again in 2014 came about, Universal Studios Japan announced their Okinawa Casino idea plan.



Universal Studios Japan is currently located in Konohana ward, Osaka city where Yumeshima Casino is planned as one of the candidates, but the USJ plan in Okinawa is different to Osaka as the Osaka site has a theme of movies and TV shows, but Okinawa would utilize its unique nature in construction and IR with the casino.


Overseas, World Sentosa Casino in Universal Studios Singapore on Sentosa island is succeeding, so Glenn Gumpel, the CEO of USJ has been building a network with the prime minister Abe in anticipation of the approval of casinos.






Now, what’s on the list for the Okinawa Casino Resort is the marine expo park in Motobu-cho, Okinawa where the Churaumi Aquarium is located.


The marine expo park was the site for the Okinawa International Marine Expo held in 1975 – 1976 and the property size is 72 hectares.



Also, Neo Park Okinawa which is located in Nago city where Henoko can be found, the American military Futenma base and Camp Kinser, the American marine corps base located in the western Urasoe city are all listed as candidate locations.



However, Hirokazu Nakaima who was promoting the casino attraction as well as the move of Futenma base in November, 2014 failed with the election of the Okinawan governor and Takeshi Onaga won the election who is an opponent of the Henoko movement and casino attraction.


So, that’s how the realization of the idea plan for Churaumi Casino and Nago Casino became desperate.



Further to that, the American capital, Comcast bought USJ and Glenn Gumbel, the retired CEO who was actively entering into casinos in Japan left on the 13rd of November in the same year, so the Okinawa casino idea plan with Universal Studios came to an end at that time.



* What is IR?
It is an integrated resort centered with a casino combined with hotel, restaurant, shopping mall, theater, movie theater, attraction, conference venue and business convention center.


* What is USJ?
It’s an operator of the Hollywood movie theme park Universal Studio Japan, which American capital Goldman Sachs Japan is investing. They confer with casino related businesses such as MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Malaysia capital Genting.