The Japanese parliament is fully preoccupied with the Trans-Pacific Pact free trade talks and the Olympic stadium fiasco, allowing no time at all for the gambling bill that was presented for a second time back in April.
Many observers believe that with the timeframe to build casino resorts in Japan before the 2020 Olympic Games having all but passed the impetus to later legalize gambling has gone and Japan will again have missed their best chance to see casino resorts in the country.
It was expected to generate some 4 trillion yen a year had casino resorts been allowed and helped Prime Minister Shinzo Abe push for greater economic growth, but opposition the Buddhist-backed Komeito, a junior partner in Abe’s coalition government and other parliament lawmakers concerned about problem gambling and organised crime have managed to push the bill out of consideration.
One gambling consultant said that all the hype and excitement of Japan legalizing gambling has now gone and with the Olympic Games passing in 2020 without casinos there will be little or no appetite for casinos for some considerable time.