Lower house passes bill allowing casinos to open

Under the bill, which has been opposed by a large majority of opposition lawmakers, people living in Japan will be charged a 6,000 yen entrance fee, while foreign visitors can enter free of charge.

So foreigners living in Japan can enter free? Hmmm...I doubt it!

It permits casino facilities in up to three locations in Japan and restricts local people from entering them more than three times per week and 10 times per month.

3 locations, let me guess, Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa

Excellent news! These Resorts will be a very big boost to the economy, while protecting Japanese people from any negative impacts. I expect resrautants, bars, Circus and concerts will be exciting attractions in the Resorts. Well done for realizing this, PM Abe, and Cabinet.

So foreigners living in Japan can enter free?

Nope:

people living in Japan will be charged a 6,000 yen entrance fee

I keep hearing about "strong public opposition", but I have yet to meet anybody opposing Casino's in Japan. Of course if there is "opposition" it is probably from other gambling type entities and not the "public".

Great news! I look forward to playing.

Excellent news! These Resorts will be a very big boost to the economy, while protecting Japanese people from any negative impacts. I expect resrautants, bars, Circus and concerts will be exciting attractions in the Resorts. Well done for realizing this, PM Abe, and Cabinet.

BS, it will only boost the economy of the already rich owners. The rest of the workers will earn the same low salary they'd get working for a konbini anyway.

So just goes to show the LDP put ¥ first and peoples opinions second, business as usual at J inc.

A casino would be a huge win win in Japan.

That's a huge market for foreign Asian visitors to Japan, it's like an all in one bonus in addition to the other tourist activities and sights that Japan is famous for.

And that foreigners get in free is a huge bonus.

Word has it that Kake Gakuen wants to open a "Croupier School" to train all prospective casino employees.

They put all these restrictions on casinos, but 10% of the population are addicted to gambling with pachinko, boats, bicycles and horses and they do nothing about it. If they are going to limit the amount of visits to a casino per month, they should do the same for pachinko although, pachinko is not really gambling (roll eyes). Also, this entrance fee will actually create problem gambling by people trying recoup their entrance fee on the tables and machines. It's so typical of Japan to take something and fun and then, over-complicate it and create a huge clustertruck out of it. It's also notable they are rushing it through to get them open before the Olympics. Yeah, they'll get a boom during the Olympics, but after that these casinos will be all but empty. They are using Macao as a model with the 'hope' people will come to Japan to gamble, but Macao has a lot more to offer and attracts many tourists. People will not come to Japan just to gamble. Yeah, some tourists will drop once or maybe twice during their stay, but that's about it. The average Japanese person will go there once or twice just to see it, but that's all. Japanese gamblers are not gonna pay ¥6,000 ten times a month when they can go to pachinko for free. I'm also curious about how the entrance fee will be used. Will it be soaked up by the operators or recycled into helping problem gamblers? - Rhetorical question! We all know it's just gonna be soaked up by the operators.

@ Disillusioned

Pachinko is not gambling. It is game for amusement. You do not win money in these Amusement Centers, so little need to regulate them unlike Casino. The Casinos will be Integrated Resorts, the gambling is just one part of the business. Many people will go for the shows, dinning and hotels in the Resort.

Unfortunate picture as it shows a bust hand in blackjack.

Fortunate passage of bill that will create jobs, bring in revenue and add a dose of reality to the whole "we don't gamble in Japan" myth. Macau and Singapore casinos are overrun with Japanese gamblers.

Might also finally put the DPRK owned pachinko business where it belongs.

I expect resrautants, bars, Circus and concerts will be exciting attractions in the Resorts.

Oh yeah... there will be circuses and animals for sure!

@SaikoPhysco

I keep hearing about "strong public opposition", but I have yet to meet anybody opposing Casino's in Japan. Of course if there is "opposition" it is probably from other gambling type entities and not the "public".

Opposition is in the Picture for the Article, the dealer drew a Bust card on the 16.

Why use a bust hand for the Picture?

Either JT is opposed to the Casino's or the staff just does not know WTF they are doing?

Who's the target of those casinos ? Chinese are going the Macau.

Casinos will not make Japan rich, only make Abe's cronies richer.

So much for Expo in Osaka in 2025. Suits me. Society cannot talk about morality after allowing these casinos, though, except to point out how right the people who were against them were.

If Japan cared about gambling addiction, you would not see 1-12+ pachinko parlors in every town.

@Ganbare Japan! - Pachinko is not gambling. It is game for amusement. You do not win money in these Amusement Centers, so little need to regulate them unlike Casino. 

Pachinko is for amusement? So is your post! Pachinko is gambling and 25% of the adult population play it regularly, half of which are addicted to it. It is set up in a loophole of the gambling laws so you win little balls that are bought at an adjacent building. It is not regulated by the government and payout ratios are not governed by any authority. The amusement part is only for the owners and operators watching fools part with their money. These casinos will be exactly the same. They will attract all the riffraff of society hoping to make a few bucks spending their grocery money while their kids are locked in cars or at home alone.

Ganbare - no one in Japan argues that pachinko is not gambling, esp because you CAN win money - just the payout is disguised.

And you mention Integrated Resorts like it's something new or wow-some.

Ever been to Las Vegas? Integrated Resorts!!! Who do you think pays for the cheap eats, Barbara Streisand shows and general ambience?

All funded by the gambling. Everyone knows this.

@wtf

I think you’re dead right, but in a different way. We’ve already had one poster on this site exposed as a foreigner pretending to be Japanese. The English gives them away: deliberate mistakes that a Japanese speaker of English would never make, but that seem plausible.

Very, very obvious.

So foreigners can enter free, as many times they want, Japanese have to pay and can only go sometimes. It’s like foreigners can get unlimited Shinkansen travel anywhere in japan for a week, for the price a Japanese taxpayer to go from Tokyo to Kyushu and back for one day.

So the yakuza is going to have “job opportunities “?!

The LDP under Abe has become a party of high taxes and cronyism that only favors big businesses at the expense of ordinary Japanese citizens.

Pachinko is gambling and 25% of the adult population play it regularly, half of which are addicted to it.

Good God, is that true? Do you have a source for that. I know it's high but that seems inflated.

All funded by the gambling. Everyone knows this.

Evidently not by "everyone" lol!

@jcapan - Google it yourself.

Why allow gambling now when pachinko parlors have literally been around for decades? This is already gambling. It seems like Japan wants to lure money from other countries. I could easily see a casino in the middle of Shinjuku.

Cambodia's experience with casino's lately. Not so fantastic.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/the-next-macau-china-s-big-gamble-in-cambodia-20180615-p4zlqg.html

The biggest mistake Japan has made since WWII.

And Japan is talking about US alliance been a question of values and dollars..?

But Japan still forgets that the responsibility to defend and protect is with with its people and not by and of another country.

It is the people of any nation that makes it a country and not the government.

Sadly the people of Japan forgot that.