Opinion pdf   Mr. Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Hirokazu Matsuno, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Headquarters for the Promotion of Measures to Combat Gambling and Other Addictions Mr. Kenji Wakamiya, Minister of State for Measures to Combat Problem Gambling Mr. Tetsuo Saito, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism   Opinion on the approval of the zone development plan for an integrated resort (IR) including casinos   Today, April 14, 2023, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism officially approved the application submitted by Osaka Prefecture and City for approval of an integrated resort (IR) zone development plan that includes casinos. On July 6, 2018, the Basic Law on Measures against Problem Gambling was enacted, and on July 20 of the same year, the IR Implementation Law was enacted. Although these bills have called for the expansion of measures to combat gambling addiction, actual progress has been slow. In fact, the number of consultations from young people suffering from gambling addiction, who have become addicted to public games where they can easily vote with a single smartphone or to illegal but unregulated online casinos, is rapidly increasing due to the Corona Disaster. If this trend continues, the number of young gamblers will continue to increase. (See the two tables above. Both from a survey of participants in a family counseling session conducted by the Association) The Osaka prefectural and municipal governments have set a limit of three days per week and 10 days per month for casino addiction prevention, but even if the maximum number of days a person can enter a casino is reached, he or she can continue gambling at online casinos for as long as he or she wants. Currently, online casinos even broadcast TV commercials under the guise of being “free,” but there are only a few warnings that “gambling at online casinos is illegal” on a website and posters created in cooperation between the National Police Agency and the Consumer Affairs Agency. The first step is to take action against online casinos, which are illegal in Japan. Another urgent issue is to prevent criminalization by gamblers. For example, when gambling addicts are heavily in debt, they will borrow money from loan sharks even though they know it is illegal. The threats of money lenders extend not only to the borrower and his/her family, but also to his/her family’s workplace, friends, acquaintances, and sometimes even to neighboring companies that are completely unrelated to the borrower. Even if they go to the police for advice, in most cases they are turned away and told that “the police can do nothing” without even conducting an investigation. If you are helpless and your repayments fall into arrears, some Yamikin companies may even make you commit crimes as a receiver or an offender in bank transfer scams. According to a 2022 survey conducted on participants in the Association’s family counseling sessions, as many as 17.7% of the participants in the 2022 survey had turned from debt problems to crimes such as black market job, theft, embezzlement, fraud, and sometimes robbery. Despite the fact that the problem of gambling addiction is becoming more serious as people become younger and the problem becomes more criminalized, the MHLW’s budget for addiction countermeasures, including alcohol, drugs, and gambling, was 950 million yen in FY2022, but in FY2023 it is 840 million yen, further reducing the originally small budget. In light of the current situation, we strongly urge that approval of casinos is premature and that measures against gambling addiction should be expanded first.   The Society Concerned about Gambling Addiction Representative: Noriko Tanaka National Association of Families with Gambling Addiction Representative: Taeko Osawa   April 14, 2023