Japan Legalises Integrated Resorts

Japan finally legalised casino gambling on Friday 20^th July when the upper House of the Diet approved the Integrated Resorts Bill.

With gambling now approved with the huge support of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling majority party the Liberal Democrats along with the coalition partner Komeito.

Shinzo Abe believes that with the construction of what will be three Integrated Resorts it will boost tourism in Japan by millions each year, however opposition parties believe that it will create large increases in problem gambling for Japanese nationals instead.

Indeed in 2017 the last national survey found that 3.2 million Japanese were or have a gambling related problem and opposition parties believe that 70% or even 80% of visitors to casinos will be Japanese nationals and not overseas visitors.

But it is not just opposition political parties that are against casino gambling coming to Japan, a recent survey found that 62% of Japanese are actually against the introduction od casinos within Integrated Resorts.

However there is still some way to go before anyone steps inside a casino in Japan, with the legislation on the amount of visits any Japanese national can make is still to be decided along with the entrance fee and of course the location of the three resorts is still to be decided and finally who from the long queue of interested casino operators would be awarded a license.

It is estimated that Integrated Resorts with those casinos will not be operational till the mid-2020s.