A lengthy visit by President Xi Jinping may have had something to do with it but, whatever the case, December casino revenue in Macao sucked wind by Macanese standards, down 14%. High rollers were in short 
supply and continued protests in Hong Kong—which show no signs of remitting—were hardly conducive to tourism. There hasn’t been this bad of a year/year decline since March 2016. VIP baccarat made its worst showing in three years. Not even strong mass-market baccarat and blackjack play were enough to offset that. President Xi’s three-day stay coincided with a crackdown on visa applications, another disincentive to gamblers. Don’t you get the impression that Xi likes the money that gambling brings but hates the industry? For the year, Macanese casino revenue was down 3.5%. Wall Street keeps telling us that 2020 will be better … and at the rate how can it be much worse? Mind you, in spite of everything, Macao casinos still banked over $2.8 million last month. If the U.S. government manages to deliver its much-touted breakthrough on the trade-war front, that will also help, as could the opening of The Londoner. We’ll see.
* Japan has a casino scandal without having any casinos. Further complicating the case is the revelation that the alleged bribery involved an Internet casino company based in China, where online gambling is illegal. Politician Tsukasa Akimoto is charged with taking $34,129 million from 500.com, three of whose associates have been arrested. 500.com was supposedly keen on a Hokkaido resort and wanted Akimoto to use his political clout to have the number of casinos in Nippon upped to five. (See what we mean about casinos being inseparable from politics?)
Says retired politico Mieko Nakabayashi, “of course, there were concerns about bribery, corruption and even the involvement of organized crime groups,” She also points to the flip-flop of Fumiko Hayashi, who went 
from casino-neutral to pro-gaming once she was re-elected as Yokohama‘s governor, a prefecture where public sentiment runs heavily against gaming. The investigation of Akimoto is broadening to other lawmakers, as police try to determine if 500.com pulled in anyone else. “Yes, the Akimoto situation has definitely borne out some of the fears that were expressed during the debate over casinos and the suggestion that a large amount of foreign capital could come into Japan,” said Asia Gaming Brief Nippon Executive Editor Michael Penn. He suggests that the Akimoto scandal could spell further delay in Japan’s snail-propelled casino rollout. Added Penn “the initial indications are that the government intends to go full-speed ahead.” Mind you, ‘speed’ is a very relative term in the endless Japanese political process.
* Could televised sports become more popular than they already are? Proponents of sports betting made the the argument that greater numbers of people who tune in if they were literally invested in the outcome. That is turning out not to be the case. True, NFL viewership is up 5%, despite an incredibly mediocre season, but it was 3% higher the year before the Supreme Court struck down the Bradley Act. Ratings for NBA games are actually lower. We’re all in favor of sports betting but think this is a good phenomenon, as it shows Americans are sports fans, not point-spread fans.
