Diet enacts law to allow casino gambling at 'integrated resorts'

the hoped-for integrated resorts, which combine casinos with hotels, convention space, theme parks and shopping malls.

Which means that potentially just about the entire island of Okinawa could become a casino.

No thank you! I hope that it comes up to a vote locally, I will vocally oppose the issue!

The nose of the camel is now under the tent.

How long will it take for Japan to nominate these casinos as UNESCO heritage sites?

Gambling is a firm of addiction and the punters lose most of the time.....

It is sad this island nation is now just going to become one long Las Vegas strip.

As if the love hotels along every road and highway wasn't an eyesore already, now there will be glittering Golden Nugget at every off ramp.

Japan isn't as wide and vast as the US to hide their casinos in tucked away spots, and I mean...

"Billionaire U.S. casino moguls such as Sheldon Adelson, head of Las Vegas Sands Corp, and Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, or their representatives have often visited Japan to lobby for legalization."

Doesn't the above scare you already enough to fight this legislation?

I don,t see Japan has wealthy. It has very wealthy citizens and a huge population of the working poor. So this will bring wealthy people to spend along with their elite habits of undermining community morals which never effect their own little worlds. Really the high end driver of the Casino industrial has been the Chinese for the late 2 decades. China has been cracking down on their wealthy population of laudrying profits through international Casinos. I really think Casinos industrial are dying. Online betting is taking a big percentage of the high end market and is growing fast.

“It’s not like the whole city will be taken over by casinos,” Abe said

I'm more worried about most of the Diet being taken over by casinos. Too late.

Japan has to create empty land. ;Odaiba type construction. Casinos were never inyerrdyrfmin Okinawa. Tokyo area. We don't know how many yet. Three at most too exprendovrbto build. ;.

As the island has become a huge destination point for tourists, from both within Japan, and the region. Okinawa will soon be getting more tourists coming here than Hawaii, nearly 9 Million this year and estimates that it will go over 10 Million per year by 2021.

That many tourists, that many resorts, means casinos, which will draw more and more people. Oh and a little over 10% of all those tourists come from foreign countries.

There has been and now will be a bigger push for casino type gambling here now that the new law has or will soon be passed.

"He said future casino projects could add iconic buildings" and ass a host of gay clubs nearby.

Let the money laundering business (and the criminals behind) flow to Japan.

@Yubaru, write the name of Casino. About every year , Sheldon AdelsonnofvSannds, MGM Steve Wynn of Wynn entertainment went Japan to propose Casinos but they never mentioned aOkinawa. Wruyebthe name. T

"Supporters of the casino legislation say it would enhance Japan’s allure as a tourism destination".

Dunno if it will 'enhance' J's profile tbh. It will certainly diversify Japan's tourism product and attract a different crowd, possibly wealthier, but it also imo cheapens its image and to some extent Japan's cultural identity and uniqueness.

Macau's old city is actually very pretty and imo would attract more (and very different) tourists if the city was not all about gambling in most ppl's mind. Very much a double edged sword.

There are illegal casinos all over the country, and even more loop-holed ones (horse racing, pachinko, etc.). Prohibition no worky. I applaud these guys for taking the first steps in getting Japan to somewhere around the 80's. Now, if we can just sort out those womens' rights...

I doubt any influx of wealthy visitors to casinos would be the reason casinos make so much money. It's more like the masses that go with hopes of becoming rich go, and lose.

Japan's casino business seems to be failure in the future. There are already so many casino resorts all over the world. Most are no longer good business. Japanese generally like small money gamblings nearby such pachinco, horse race, boat race but never love big money gamblings for big money. And also casino resort seems very far away.

There has been talk of building a casino on Okinawa since the 1970s but it has never gotten beyond the talking stage by local politicians. With Casinos now being legalized by the nation of Japan, I agree with @yubaru that with Okinawas climate and already large tourist base that Okinawa will definitely be considered for at least one casino.

Surveys have shown a majority of Japanese oppose the plan. And still they go ahead and push it through with lightning speed while other reforms (such as worker's rights) sit in a dark, dusty closet. And this is a democracy..?

"If you build it they will come".

Corrected

"Surveys have shown a majority of Japanese oppose the plan."

And still they go ahead and push it through with lightning speed while other reforms (such as worker's rights) sit in a dark, dusty closet. And this is a democracy..?

"Diet enacts law to allow casino gambling at 'integrated resorts"

This title is misleading. They enacted a law that says that the Japanese government will produce a law (a separate one) within a year that will allow for casinos to be built into IRs. Conditions apply to the "to be" law, where measures against gambling addiction etc have to be put in place for such a law to be enacted.

There's still a chance the law will face significant troubles, as many of the conservatives behind Abe are demanding a "no foreign capital" or "majority ownership by Japanese capital" clause be written into the new law.

"It is sad this island nation is now just going to become one long Las Vegas strip.

As if the love hotels along every road and highway wasn't an eyesore already, now there will be glittering Golden Nugget at every off ramp.

Japan isn't as wide and vast as the US to hide their casinos in tucked away spots, and I mean..."

That's just a little hysterical isn't it? The market will support a few casinos but will hardly make Japan a 1000 mile long LV strip! If you think that there are love hotels along every road and highway then you need to get out more, farther and wider, and you might just find plenty of tucked-away spots that won't be hosting casinos.

Properly regulated and controlled casinos will benefit everyone through jobs and tax revenues plus attracting additional money spending tourists (Note - properly regulated).

Osaka is not considered in current casino plan. Just Tokyo. Some hears ago, Caesars Palace created casino in New Jersey and that was bankrupted along with Trump's casinos. CIS proposing to Osaka but Japan is ignoring. From Vegas, only Tokyo.

Can guess that Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada is pulling the strings behind this, his on-going feud with Steve Wynn seems to have been settled, and the allegations of bribes, large brown envelopes and corruption with Philippine casinos have died out.

The high rollers fly in, gamble, and fly out.They don't really notice what country they are playing in, except for the accents of the dealers and croupiers, and the name on the menu and drinks list. Some of the wealth may trickle down, in the form of salaries for service workers, and f&b items, but mostly it is an opaque world of the super rich playing with the super rich, facilitated by the super rich.

Put one in Beppu. That plays is going downhill

Japan “would dwarf the Singapore market in size and could be extraordinarily lucrative for all the investors, real estate and operators alike.”

The amount of profits that casinos make equal the amount that people lose.

Make an extension of Odaiba, put all casinos there. Keep these out of City.

Put one in Beppu. That plays is going downhill

And you think adding a casino will improve it?

I don't understand why there's such an opposition on casinos. Gambling is already legal in Japan. People can literally walk to their local Pachinko parlor and waste as much money as they want there. Are a few casinos really going to make things much worse?

But I do have to say, if the government was only interested in bringing in wealthy tourists they could have an arrangement like in Macau. Local Chinese aren't allowed to gamble in the casinos there. Only foreign tourists are permitted.

Prepare for a tax hike to support the losers.

Put one in Beppu. That plays is going downhill

And you think adding a casino will improve it?

Yes I do. Perfect place for one...a tourist town that struggles to keep people there more than a couple of days.

On balance a good thing.

Bad idea Japan BAD idea, these resorts just create a lot of crappy part time work for the most part, countries & the surrounding areas never really see much but the eyesore these things become!

So Japan will you do like in SIN where locals have to PAY a fee to enter so the poor don't become too quickly fleeced of what little ca$h they have??

naturalclown123: "How long will it take for Japan to nominate these casinos as UNESCO heritage sites?"

First things first... need a mascot. That requires a panel for discussion. You just can't steamroll such important things through like you can a bill that will transform society, like reinterpreting the Constitution, adding a Secret's Law, restarting power plants... those kind of things no one besides vested interests want. Mascots? panels? Emperor's abdication? those take TIME and are important to discuss!

Unclear whether the target market is Japanese, or foreign tourists. If the former, and the majority of people interviewed oppose casino gambling, lady luck is likely to be pretty fickle. If the latter, I can't imagine anyone with decent language skills is going to apply for a job as a dealer...

$30 billion here, $30 billion there, pretty soon we're talkin' about real money.

I suspect a lot of that money will be sucked out the pockets of Japanese people.

Maybe the character will be a sojiki?

Slogan: "Making Japanese people poorer; making a couple of people filthy rich."

Wonder if Trump would make this a priority for his Japan policies

Y'know, to help the business of his....., er I mean, the business of US

Casinos target wealthy people but for loew income gamble lovers, there are visio pokers. For low budget tytlurīzts, video slot. I think only Tokyo for Casinos. So Tokyo legislatures can make no income tax, no buziness tax for Tokyo residents.

Foolish. Japanese electorate, vote these numbskulls out of office!

One problem Vegas Casino tycoons face will be shortage of available workers in Japan. In Nevada women and men het same jobs. For instane,njrsses are men a d women barbers hairdressers, etc. About three Sousa d jobs for each casinos.

The Casino should not open in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Kyoto and closed to any cities. Government should issue 5 years temporary Casino gaming license for Okinawa resort and Hokkaido Ski resort. The Casino operators are longing for to suck blood from Japanese hard working peoples for long times. PM Abe must be very careful about not to destroy Japanese society. I don't think the international Casino operators will be interested if the Casino license has banning Japanese peoples from entering into Casino gambling venue. The international Casino operators target is Japanese money and not money from tourists. James Packer has sold his shares from Macau Casino because Macau Casino business was falling since Chinese Government cracking down on corruption and gambling. He also canceled Casino development project in Las Vegas for to concentrate his business in Australia and perhaps, in Japan.

How many job opportunities will create from Casino in Japan? How many bilingual Japanese who can speak fluent English language are willing to work as croupiers, dealers, waiters and waitress at Casino if PM Abe’s target was foreign tourists? The main source of gambling tax for Government is coming from Pokies machines. Pokies machines players are mostly pensioners and gambling addicted peoples in Australia and US. PM Abe was fantasy about tax coming from Casino. He should aware of the tax that Government collect will be coming from hard working Japanese and pensioners. The rest of money will go to overseas. Japan will be better off if Government do not issue Casino gaming license.

This is just a first step. No one is permitted to create Casino.So Tokyo people can still go to neighborhood yakuza's . Illegal gambling house and pachinko' o