A new agency has been added to the mix in Japan’s process of choosing eventual winners of its casino integrated resorts (IR). The Japan Tourism Agency is being reshuffled to form the new International Tourism Department, Asia Gaming Brief (AGB) reports.

The Agency, which reports to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, will start with 73 people working under Hiroshi Tabata, its inaugural director. Two counsellors will be charged with splitting the very important responsibilities of organizing the IR industry, and providing outreach and cooperation to international organizations.

AGB speculated that the announcement of this slightly new agency was a bit of political theater. It was necessary to announce a new agency to take charge of this process, but experts expected the announcement of the Casino Management Board. Speculation is that the Shinzo Abe government, who have elections coming up very soon, did not want to announce anything with the word “casino” in it before those all-important elections.

Whatever their ultimately role will be, the new International Tourism Department will have its work cut out for it. The country has previously announced that in the first round of bidding, only three IR licenses will be handed out. That means that several cities, and dozens of operators, will be spending a lot of time and resources just to lose out.