Japan pushes for speedy passage of gambling addiction bill

Japan’s ruling coalition is pressing legislators to approve a gambling addiction bill before they head home for their winter break.

On Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito reintroduced a bill aimed to mitigate the potential social harms that could arise from the country’s plans to authorize casino gambling for the first time.

Japan passed casino enabling legislation in December 2016, setting up the need to pass the so-called Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation bill sometime next year. A previous version of the gambling addiction bill, which is viewed as a necessary precursor to the IR bill’s passage, was submitted this summer but died on the order paper after Abe’s snap election call.

The bicameral Diet is scheduled to wrap up its 2017 affairs on December 9, but the LDP/Komeito faction hopes to get an assist from the Nippon Ishin no Kai party in the House of Representatives and get the gambling addiction bill to the floor for a vote before legislators head for the exits.