A citizens’ group in Nagasaki that opposes the prefecture’s IR bid at Huis Ten Bosch in Sasebo city has submitted a petition to the government requesting the IR bid be halted.
Nagasaki prefecture and IR operating partner Casinos Austria International Japan (CAIJ) are in the process of drafting a regional development plan for an IR based on the opinions of the Prefectural Assembly, and will apply to Japan’s national government by April of next year.
According to reports by NHK, the citizens’ group visited the Prefectural Assembly on Tuesday, submitting a petition asking the City Council Secretariat to demand the Prefectural Assembly take measures to halt the application. The contents of the petition claim a lack of transparency in the basis of the economic effect estimates of an IR as described by the prefecture and that IR operations should not be run by the government due to reasons such as the inability to eliminate the risk of problem gambling.
The petition will be put on the Prefectural Assembly agenda and examined by the General Affairs Committee. The citizens’ group collected 5,041 signatures.
Claims posted on the website of this anti-IR group state, “Many citizens oppose attempts to facilitate economy growth through risk of increase in gambling dependency, poor influence on the local society and youth, and using antisocial industries.
“The point has been made that promotion of casinos is targeting of the savings of Japanese people just to make the foreign casinos richer.”
It also states, “The local governments are being drawn in by the temporary creation of jobs, but we absolutely cannot accept something like taking the lead in an unwholesome and degenerate casino bid that will bring misfortune to so many people. We believe that this is a path on which the regional administration should not tread.”
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