Japan IR bill blocked for now, but still alive

Tuesday 15th of November 2016

The bill to legalize casino gaming in Japan has, for now, been blocked by the minority party DPP, noted Union Gaming on Tuesday.

“This afternoon, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) attempted to put the IR Promotion bill on the official legislative calendar, but the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) has, for now, blocked the move,” said the brokerage.

While the bill was blocked by the DPP, analysts noted that minority party, Komeito, had signalled that they are not opposed to seeing the bill on the official legislative calendar. This was seen as good news as there was earlier concerns they may oppose it.

“While we would have liked to have seen the IR bill sail through the agenda committee today, we note that it is still very much alive. As with politics the world over, we would expect horse trading to take place behind the scenes over the coming days and (potentially) weeks,” said Union Gaming.

The brokerage maintains the bill has a high likelihood of passage given the LDP’s majority control over both legislative chambers.

“As we've noted before, should the bill be brought up for debate we believe the likelihood of passage remains high given that the LDP has majority control over both legislative chambers.”

“We still feel positive and that the LDP is actually trying to insert the IR bill onto the legislative calendar suggests they are willing to expend political capital on the IR bill this year. This is uncharted territory and cause for some amount of optimism,” said the brokerage.

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