Japanese Diet to consider revised gambling addiction bill

In Japan, the reigning front had withdrawn its Basic Bill on Gambling Addiction Countermeasures. It submitted a revised bill instead, which is jointly supported by the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito Party, and the conservative opposition Japan Innovation Party.

There is not much striking difference between both the versions of the bill. The main difference is in the proposal about conducting stakeholders’ meetings that will bring together gambling addicts, casino operators, and experts into some kind of joint framework.

The revised bill also has proposals such as clarifying the division of responsibilities between the national and prefectural governments, the strengthening of healthcare infrastructure for gambling addicts, and a major survey to be conducted on the national state of affairs as it relates to problem gambling every three years. As in the old withdrawn bill, as per the new bill, the Chief Cabinet Secretary will become head of a to-be-established Headquarters for the Promotion of Gambling Addiction Countermeasures.

Gen Nakatani, the former Defense Minister who is leading the ruling party team compiling countermeasures against problem gambling, once again urged opposition parties other than the Japan Innovation Party to support the legislation.

The left-leaning opposition parties have already jointly submitted a rival bill and they do support the enactment of legislation to combat gambling addiction, but they also fear that moving quickly on passage of this legislation is intended by the ruling party merely as a step to clear the decks for passage of the IR Implementation Bill in the current Diet session, which they strongly oppose.

Source: intergameonline.com