Three years after the legalization of casino gambling in Japan, the country’s campaign to bring integrated resorts with designated Las Vegas-style gaming facilities was embroiled in a bribery scandal that rocked the highest levels of the Japanese government.
Police arrested earlier this week Tsukasa Akimoto, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who sits in the House of Representatives, on suspicion that he received JPY3.7 million from a Chinese gambling operator that sought to build an integrated resort in Hokkaido.
According to prosecutors, the lawmaker was approached in July 2017 by 500.com, a Shenzhen, China-based provider of sports lottery products. The company had just set an office in Japan as part of its efforts to win the right to operate one of the country’s first casino resorts.
Sources familiar with Mr. Akimoto’s alleged ties with 500.com said that shortly after opening its Japanese office, the company organized a casino-related event in Okinawa Prefecture in a bid to gain wider name recognition. Mr. Akimoto was invited to give a keynote speech.
Seeking Preferential Treatment in Casino License Race
500.com was understood to have initially planned to pay the legislator JPY500,000 for his participation in the symposium. However, it raised the amount to JPY2 million after learning that Mr. Akimoto could be tasked by the Japanese government with overseeing the policy that would pave the way for the introduction of casino gambling in the country through so-called integrated resorts.
Following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s call for snap election in September 2017, 500.com paid Mr. Akimoto JPY3 million to back his election campaign. According to Tokyo prosecutors, the contribution from the gambling company was a bribe that aimed to lure the LDP lawmaker into treating 500.com preferentially when it came to selecting the holders of Japan’s first casino licenses.
In December 2017, Mr. Akimoto made a three-day visit to China, the costs for which were covered by 500.com. There he visited the company’s corporate headquarters as well as a casino in Macau.
Sources said that during the lawmaker’s visit, 500.com executives conveyed their plans to expand in Japan and told Mr. Akimoto that the company could bring its huge base of gambling customers around China to Japan if it receives a casino license.
Prosecutors are carrying out further investigations over whether Mr. Akimoto made any demands to the gambling company in exchange for promising to back the company’s bid to enter Japan’s casino industry by exploiting his authority in the cabinet.
A Trip to Hokkaido
500.com also allegedly treated the Japanese minister to a trip to Hokkaido in February 2018, the expenses for which amounted to around JPY700,000. Hokkaido was previously considered one of the front-runners in the race for hosts of Japan’s first integrated resorts.
However, Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said in late November that the prefecture would not immediately pursue a bid to host an integrated casino resort due to concerns over the environmental impact of a project of such a massive scale.
Mr. Akimoto has denied any unlawful ties with 500.com and has labeled the allegations leveled against him as “groundless.” As mentioned above, the LDP member was arrested earlier this week.
Of his trip to China, Mr. Akimoto said that it was an “inspection” of Macau’s casino industry. The city is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.
Prosecutors also arrested this week three people related to 500.com for allegedly offering bribes to Mr. Akimoto.
Source: Chinese firm may have targeted Akimoto in attempt to break into Japanese casino business, Japan Times
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