A pro-casino group of lawmakers plans to introduce gambling-enabling legislation in the upcoming session of the Japanese Diet. Steve Wynn was quick to plunk $4 billion-plus on the table, while MGM Resorts International promises unspecified “billions.” It’s like a gold rush and we’ve already heard from crusty old prospector Sheldon Adelson, who always knows where the money is. Casino moguls look at the Japan market and get positively pie-eyed, so great are the revenue possibilities (including drawing off some of the cream of the Chinese market).
Then it’s a question of finding name-brand Japanese companies to go in with them as joint-venture partners. Heck, even Caesars Entertainment could be in the thick of it — provided somebody else is 
can foot most of the bill. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is remaining behind the scenes at the moment but the casino-legalization bill is being pushed by one of his appointees, so it’s only one degree of separation removed from The Man. Melco Crown Entertainment and Sociedade de Jogos de Macau are both eyeing Tokyo, as is Las Vegas Sands, but — like Wynn — Adelson and Wynn want to make a play for Tokyo and Osaka both. Never accuse them of thinking small.
You’ve heard of casino hosts. How about “casino chaperones“? It an industry first, deployed at Horseshoe Cincinnati to keep the under-21 away from gambling. This is the sort of inane consequence that comes from making the legal gambling age higher than those for voting or enlisting. At least it creates jobs for the chaperones, though.
Whatever zeal the current presidential administration feels for helping Native American tribes get their casinos approved, it’s not shared on Capitol Hill. Not only is the House of Representatives demonstrating no enthusiasm for a “fix” of the Carcieri v. Salazar ruling, powerful senators like Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are bottling it in the upper house, too. All of which means that the casino-ownership dreams of the Mashpee Wampanoags of Massachusetts are a cruel delusion. Even if the will toward rewriting the law around Carcieri were there, the votes, sadly, are not.
