Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2013 32 IN FOCUS C hances are “better than 50/50” that a bill authorizing resort-scale casino development will be passed in Japan’s Diet by early 2014 and a bill spelling out a regulatory scheme, including licensing and taxation, within a year of that. Such was the consensus of a gathering last month in Tokyo of global casino operators and various Japanese stakeholders hosted by Las Vegas-based investment brokers Union Gaming Group, which projected that the initial bill will be introduced in the parliament by November. Hiroyuki Hosoda, chairman of the pro- casino caucus in Japan’s Diet, also said last month that his group plans to submit a legalization bill in the next session of the parliament expected to convene in October. Mr Hosoda, a senior member of Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and an ally of the prime minister, added that the intention is to get the bill passed in the next session beginning next year. “There seems to be near universal sentiment that Tokyo’s winning 2020 Summer Olympics bid has increased the likelihood of a gaming expansion bill passing,” UGG said in a recap for investors of its inaugural Japan Development Conference, held over two days last month in the capital. As summarized by one Diet member “A lot of Japanese gamble at casinos overseas, so the ban doesn’t make sense anymore.” Hiroyuki Hosoda chairman of the pro-casino caucus in Japan’s Diet A Gathering in Tokyo Consensus is Japan’s Diet will move to legalize casinos sometime in early 2014