Japan Lower House OKs Casino Bill

June 20, 2018

Tokyo- The House of Representatives passed a bill to introduce up to three casino-featuring integrated resorts in Japan at a plenary meeting Tuesday.

The lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, approved the bill by a majority vote with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition ally, Komeito, and opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party). The legislation was sent to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.

The ruling bloc hopes to extend the current Diet session, set to end on Wednesday, for about a month, aiming to ensure an early enactment of the bill.

Other opposition parties, such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and the Japanese Communist Party strongly reject the bill, claiming that the introduction of casinos will increase gambling addiction.

The bill includes measures to prevent people from spending too much time in casinos, such as an entrance fee of 6,000 yen for Japanese people and identification checks using My Number cards to limit their entry to up to three times per week and 10 times per month.

The parties that reject the bill, however, say that these measures are not enough to completely prevent gambling addiction.

During the Lower House plenary meeting, Akio Fukuda of the CDPJ said that measures against gambling problems are insufficient. The number of entries allowed is "too many," he said.

DPFP lawmaker Kentaro Genma said that a system to be introduced under the bill to allow casino operators to lend money to customers who have lost all of their betting money will directly cause gambling addiction and heavy debts. Jiji Press