The Japan casino bribery scandal, which raged the news by storm last week, is yet again making headlines. This time, the Chinese company has been put under investigation, and as per reports, the company is accused of bribing five other lawmakers.
Last week, politician Tsukasa Akimoto was taken into custody for illegally receiving cash from a Chinese company and helping the company to smuggle several million yen in cash into the country.
The name of the Chinese company which was previously kept under secrecy has now been revealed to be 500.com following the confession of one of its advisors named Katsunori Nakazado, who confessed of having handed JPY1 million which is around $9,214.640 to each of the suspected lawmakers back in the year 2017. However, as per the sources, this amount was lower than the amount that was paid to Akimoto, which was around JPY3.7 million at the time. Apart from this, the company gave Mr. Akimoto and his family a free trip to Hokkaido in February last year. The five lawmakers have been accepting bribes from 500.com to fulfill the company’s bid for building an integrated casino resort in Hokkaido.
This casino bribery scandal would take a heavy toll on the prospects of the integrated casino resorts project of the country. Japan expected to host the international casino brands in the country and bolster its position as one of the main gaming hubs in Asia but is now facing massive uncertainties after the casino scandal. The news of the scandal would delay the presumed entry of a consolidated resort (IR) that was scheduled to be launched in the World Expo in 2025. The Integrated Resort Promotion Bill was passed by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2016, which signaled the legalization of opening casino projects in the country.
