The Japan Casino Regulatory Commission has been allocated JPY3.62 billion (US$27.2 million) by the national government in its organisational budget for its financial year 2023. That is a nearly 3-percent increase compared with the financial-year 2022 budget, according to information collated by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent.
In September, it was reported that the Commission had asked for a 10-percent hike in its organisational budget for financial-year 2023.
The central government is expected to submit its budget plan to the country’s parliament sometime in late January next year.
The Commission will see its staff numbers go up by 7, to 164. The body’s estimate for its personnel and operational costs for financial year 2023 is JPY2.85 billion, up JPY70 million year-on-year.
Its costs regarding the establishment of an “organisation to supervise casino operators and others” are expected at JPY370 million, down JPY10 million year-on-year.
The cost to “conduct examinations of casino operators and others to check the suitability for granting casino licences,” is put at JPY220 million, up JPY10 million year-on-year.
The financial-year 2023 cost to establish an information technology (IT) system to “examine casino operators and others to check the suitability for granting casino licences,” is put at JPY60 million, the same amount as for financial year 2022.
That cost excludes an amount listed by Japan’s Digital Agency – a government body set up to aid the “digitalisation” of Japan’s economy, government and society – to be paid by the Japan Casino Regulatory Commission toward such work, in the sum of JPY910 million.
According to the financial-year 2023 budget, the cost to “establish relationships with overseas regulatory bodies” will be JPY220 million for the period, up JPY30 million from the prior year.
It is unlikely any casino resort will become operational in Japan before the end of the current decade, even if either or both of the two existing applicants – Osaka and Nagasaki – are given the go-ahead by the country’s authorities early next year.
Several Osaka MPs have recently pressed senior national government figures to expedite the approval of Osaka’s IR plan.
Local-government representatives in Nagasaki have repeatedly pressed the authorities there to give more information on the funding for what has been touted as a JPY438.3-billion project.
