32 Asia The EconomistFebruary 8th 2020
1A
s he pacesthe cramped cell in Tokyo
where he is being held on suspicion of
corruption, Akimoto Tsukasa may be won-
dering where it all went wrong. In 2017,
while serving as the minister in charge of
the government’s scheme to build Japan’s
first casinos, he flew by private jet to China
on a trip paid for by the boss of an online
casino firm. He returned with a bag of goo-
dies, including a pair of expensive shoes.
Later, prosecutors claim, he pocketed over
¥3m ($27,000) from the same firm. He is
said subsequently to have sounded out the
transport ministry about building an air-
port for private jets in a ski resort on Hok-
kaido, a big northern island, to provide eas-
ier access for high-rollers. This week
prosecutors filed a second charge of bribe-
taking against him. What is more, since Mr
Akimoto’s arrest on December 25th, the al-
legations have spooled out to ensnare five
other politicians, all but one from the rul-
ing Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan’s prime minister, Abe Shinzo,
may also be asking himself how things
came to this. In 2018 he pushed through
parliament a measure allowing the con-
struction of three “integrated resorts”: Las
Vegas-style destinations for family holi-
days, with all sorts of wholesome attrac-
tions as well as slot machines. Before then,
casinos were illegal in Japan, although bet-
ting on horse, boat and bicycle races is per-
mitted, and local governments are allowed
to run lotteries.
Mr Abe presumably thought that the
promise of an influx of well-heeled tour-
ists to regions with atrophying popula-
tions and economies would overcome pop-
ular misgivings. But even before the
scandal broke, surveys found that a major-
ity of Japanese were opposed. In Yoko-
hama, a shrinking city on the outskirts of
Tokyo seen as a potential site for a resort,
94% of residents do not want one, accord-
ing to a survey conducted by the local gov-
ernment. Many Japanese seem to associate
casinos with pachinko, a variation on pin-
ball to which many Japanese are addicted
and which attracts lots of attention from
yakuza(gangsters). Last month four oppo-
sition parties asked the government to re-
peal the law paving the way for the resorts.
The response from local government
has also been mixed. Two prefectures seen
as potential sites for a casino—Hokkaido
and Chiba—have ruled themselves out in
recent months, saying the need to developa detailed plan for a resort by the middle of
next year would distract them from more
important issues, such as disaster manage-
ment. But other prefectures are eager. Hi-
rata Ken, vice-governor of Nagasaki, says
its population will shrink by 100,000 in the
next decade. A resort would bring jobs and
help “stem the haemorrhaging of young
people to Tokyo”. Yokohama’s vice-gover-
nor, Hirahara Toshihide, is keen despite lo-
cals’ misgivings. The city does not have a
single five-star hotel, he laments (wrong-
ly). “The resort will bring them.”
Casino operators are, unsurprisingly,
enthusiastic. The resorts could take in
¥1.75trn a year, according to the more bull-
ish projections. Some of the biggest names
in the business, such as Las Vegas Sands
and mgmResorts, are keen. President Do-
nald Trump lobbied Mr Abe on behalf of
American casino firms at a meeting in 2017,
according to ProPublica, an investigative
website. Sheldon Adelson, the boss of Las
Vegas Sands, has also buttonholed him.
But the government and casino opera-
tors seem to have different ideas about how
the resorts should operate. Officials talk
about strenuous measures to prevent peo-
ple from losing their shirts, such as a ban
on cash machines on the premises, a limit
on the number of visits allowed per month,
and so on. A maximum of 3% of the floor-
space of each resort will be devoted to gam-
bling. Some local politicians have suggest-
ed that only foreigners should be allowed
to bet. The developers, however, will want
to lure as many of Japan’s well-heeled pen-
sioners as it can, and persuade them to
gamble freely. No wonder the government
has not yet said on what basis it will award
the three licences, or when. 7TOKYO
The government’s plan to build three
casinos is running into troubleGambling in JapanThe chips are down
The irresistible glamour of gamblingT
he lasttime Abdul Haq saw his son,
the young man was bound for a new
life, with a work visa in his new passport
and a lucrative job awaiting. The rickshaw
with which he made a living had been sold
to pay for the fresh start, but no matter: he
was trading the poverty of Sargodha, a city
in Punjab province, for the riches of Saudi
Arabia. Unfortunately, his family’s dreams
of better times thanks to regular remit-
tances lasted only days. After an unex-
plained silence, their son eventually called
from a Saudi prison using a borrowed
phone. He explained he was being held on
charges of drug-smuggling. The men who
arranged his visa had insisted he first travel
to Karachi, where they forced him to hide a
small package in his bag. When he was
stopped and searched on arrival in Riyadh
it turned out to contain heroin. That was
ten years ago; Abdul Haq’s son is now on
death row. “They just exploited our pover-
ty,” explains the old man.
Labour is one of Pakistan’s biggest ex-
ports and Saudi Arabia has for decades of-
fered work to poor Pakistanis. The king-
dom plays host to 2.7m Pakistanis, more
than any other country. Remittances from
Saudi Arabia to Pakistan are projected to
reach $2.6bn this year.
Yet despite the importance of these
workers to the economy, campaigning law-
yers say, the government is doing too little
to shield them from exploitation. Some
3,200 Pakistani convicts languish in Saudi
jails, many on drugs charges. Stories of
coercion, entrapment in debt and decep-
tion like the one told by Abdul Haq are
plentiful, says Sara Bilal of the Justice Pro-
ject Pakistan (jpp), which represents vul-
nerable prisoners. “These people are small
fish, these are people who do not know
how to read, they have never left the coun-
try, they don’t know what a passport is.”
Given that the government actively en-
courages such people to seek work abroad,
she argues, it should also make sure that
they are not abused.
In theory, the government regulates
employment agencies that send workers to
the Gulf. In practice, a network of unregis-
tered and often unscrupulous middlemen
reaches every village. Even pilgrims are not
spared. Mehboob Alam says his mother
was offered a place on a trip to Mecca in
2017 by a benefactor in her village in Pun-
jab, near the Indian border. Someone hid
some heroin in her luggage. She was sen-SARGODHA
How poor villagers are tricked into
becoming drug mulesPakistani prisoners in Saudi ArabiaJunk bondage