Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2021年4月 亞博匯 95 Much like today, the primary argument in favour of legalizing casinos was to provide a much- needed boost to the economy, particularly in the wake of the tragic tsunami that devastated parts of Japan’s east coast. 一如今日，支持賭場合法化的主要理由是 為經濟提供急需的提振，尤其是在海嘯摧 毀了日本東海岸的部分地區之後。 十年之前 T he more things change, the more they stay the same. The Inside Asian Gaming team has long lamented the snail’s pace at which Japan’s road to casino development has crawled, and there is perhaps no bettermeans of demonstrating this than by looking back to the cover story of our April 2011 issue. The topic, of course, was Japan and the issue at hand the prospects of Japanese lawmakers giving the green light to casino gaming. Much like today, the primary argument in favor of legalizing casinos was to provide a much-needed boost to the economy, particularly in the wake of the tragic tsunami that devastated parts of Japan’s east coast and led to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. There was also the matter of Japan’s aging and shrinking population – a problem supporters of casinos still legitimately point to today. However, one of the primary concerns at the time was pachinko, and more specifically the role it has played in Japanese society over many years. Despite signs even a decade ago that the prevalence of pachinko was starting to fall, IAG pointed out at the time that this traditional Japanese game – although not officially classified as gambling – continued to 亞 博匯》團隊長期以來一直哀歎日本賭場的發 展步伐慢似蝸牛，沒有比回顧我們這篇2011 年4月封面故事更能說明這一點了。 討論的話題當然是日本，而討論的問題 則是日本立法者是否可能為開放博彩業大開 綠燈。一如今日，支持賭場合法化的主要理由是為經濟提供急需 的提振，尤其是在海嘯摧毀了日本東海岸的部分地區並導致福島 《