{"id":14927,"date":"2014-11-04T11:23:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T19:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14927"},"modified":"2018-11-07T09:02:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T17:02:22","slug":"decision-time-failure-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/decision-time-failure-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision time; Failure in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Casino supporters showed up in force in <strong>Springfield<\/strong>, <strong>Massachusetts<\/strong>, touting the charitable benefits &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/index.ssf\/2014\/11\/springfield_mayor_domenic_sarn_124.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">not to mention the employment ones<\/a> &#8212; that would stem from an <strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong> casino. For instance, MGM would continue its sponsorship of a local boxing club for young men that has gone to <strong>Ireland<\/strong> tw0 summers running.\u00a0&#8220;It&#8217;s going to create so many programs just to help out the city&#8217;s youth,&#8221; said <strong>Western New England Golden Gloves<\/strong> Executive Director <strong>Dean Fay<\/strong>, &#8220;a narcotics detective with a vice grip who&#8217;s built like a middle linebacker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Healey.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14929\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Healey.jpg\" alt=\"Healey\" width=\"200\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Healey.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Healey-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Perhaps Springfield should have sent Fay to talk sense to Democratic candidate for state attorney general <strong>Maura Healey<\/strong>, who endorsed anti-casino &#8220;Yes on Three,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masslive.com\/politics\/index.ssf\/2014\/04\/massachusetts_attorney_general_9.html#incart_story_package\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">trotting out a stock set<\/a> of anti-casino arguments. Unfortunately for her, Healey&#8217;s proposed solutions are outside the purview of her would-be office: &#8220;infrastructure development, investments in education and job training, a more &#8216;progressive tax structure,&#8217; an increase in the minimum wage and &#8216;unionizing our workforce&#8217; to help create jobs and prepare residents for the modern economy.&#8221;\u00a0What she could and would do is form a Gaming Division at industry expense and sent investigators to fan out across gaming floors statewide.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <strong>MGM Springfield<\/strong> President <strong>Michael Mathis<\/strong> wrangled with <strong>Repeal the Casino Deal<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Alan Cabot<\/strong> one last time. I don&#8217;t know if Mathis should lend Cabot the additional stature of going one-on-one &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; but MGM can&#8217;t afford to let any undecided or wavering voters stay on the fence.<\/p>\n<p>* Forget waiting years for casino gambling in <strong>Japan<\/strong>. The <em>legislation<\/em> alone may take years to pass. That&#8217;s what sources &#8220;directly involved in the process&#8221; are telling <strong>Reuters<\/strong>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/abe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14928\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/abe.jpg\" alt=\"abe\" width=\"250\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/abe.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/abe-150x114.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Racked by scandal, <strong>Shinzo Abe<\/strong>&#8216;s government hasn&#8217;t the clout to push casino gambling forwar<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/11\/04\/us-japan-casino-idUSKBN0IO0P820141104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">d<\/a> during this session of the Diet. So you can forget about leavening your trip to the 2020 <strong>Olympics<\/strong> with a few hands of baccarat. &#8220;Although [supporters]\u00a0aim to keep the bill on the table, the sources said there was a considerable chance it would not come up for discussion even in 2015.&#8221; Other issues &#8212; such as national defense and the budget &#8212; will take higher priority. Bill author\u00a0<strong>Toru Mihara<\/strong>, of the <strong>Osaka University of Commerce<\/strong>, called the turn of events a &#8220;total loss of face&#8221; for Abe&#8217;s government and there&#8217;s nothing worse in Japanese culture than to lose face.<\/p>\n<p>One particularly gloomy parliamentary source said,\u00a0&#8220;If they can&#8217;t pass it now, I doubt whether they&#8217;ll ever be able to pass it.&#8221; Abe can&#8217;t even count on solid support within his <strong>Liberal Democratic Party<\/strong>, never mind ambivalent coalition partner <strong>Komeito<\/strong>. The potential delay could one of three or four years &#8212; pushing casino openings back to 2024 &#8212; meaning that MGM, <strong>Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>, <strong>Genting Group<\/strong>, <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>, <strong>Rush Street Gaming<\/strong>, etc., will have to possess their souls in patience and hope Abe is still in power four years hence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Casino supporters showed up in force in Springfield, Massachusetts, touting the charitable benefits &#8212; not to mention the employment ones &#8212; that would stem from an MGM Resorts International casino. For instance, MGM would continue its sponsorship of a local &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/decision-time-failure-in-japan\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,26,120,7,171,112,11,91,33,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22861,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14927\/revisions\/22861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}