Sources also said that Akimoto delivered a speech about the casino market at a conference in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture in August 2017, where the head of the Chinese company also spoke.<\/p>\n
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The only Chinese company that shared the stage with Akimoto at the Okinawa symposium was New York-listed and Shenzhen-based 500.com, which was one of two companies approved by the Chinese government to operate an online sports lottery pilot project in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
500.com has struggled since Beijing suspended the project in 2015, and has sought to diversify. In October 2018, it announced it was prepared to invest $1.5 billion in bringing an integrated resort to Hokkaido.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have also questioned senior officials in Rusutsu, the ski-resort village in Hokkaido where 500.com proposed developing the property.<\/p>\n
Slow Progress<\/h2>\n
Japan passed an enabling bill to legalize casinos in December 2016. This authorized the government to develop a framework of regulation for the future casino market, which resulted in legislation passed last year.<\/p>\n
The government is not likely to begin considering proposals for integrated resorts from municipalities and prefectures until 2021, officials said recently.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, Tokyo\u2019s District Public Prosecutor grilled a lawmaker from Japan\u2019s ruling Liberal Democratic Party over his alleged links to a Chinese gambling company that is suspected of breaking foreign exchange laws. Tsukasa Akimoto, 48, a member of the House of Representatives and active proponent of the legalization of casino gaming in Japan, was questioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":122618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Japanese Lawmaker Probed Over Ties to Chinese Gaming Group<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n