Japan to postpone casino bill

The Japanese government and the Liberal Democratic Party have decided not to pass the Integrated Resort Facilities Promotion Bill at the Ordinary Diet Session beginning this year on January 4, according to Asia Gaming Brief, preferring instead to wait until after the House of Councilors elections.
The bill, which deals largely with casinos and the gaming industry, would lift the current ban on casinos.
However according to local press Hokkaido Shimbun, the Komeito political party remains cautious over lifting the ban due its potential to heighten gambling addiction in the island nation.
The government views the bill as a strategic measure to help stimulate Japan’s precarious economy, but the legislation is likely to require accompanying regulations to be effective.
Discussions over revising the current ban on casinos first emerged back in 2002, however a decade of successive and short-lived Japanese governments cut the idea short.
Local media are now reporting that a rush to pass the bill before the House of Councilors election in the summer of 2016 could affect cooperation between Japan’s two riling parties.
According to Asia Gaming Brief, a representative from Komeito warned that there is no reason to pass the bill before the elections. “The bill is frozen until the Autumn Extraordinary Diet Sessions,” the representative told media.