THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – Moves are accelerating to bring casinos to Japan, but the economic benefits could be overshadowed by the social costs evident in other countries where gambling is legal.

Shintaro Ishihara started the trend in 1999, when, as governor of Tokyo, he proposed establishing casinos in the fashionable Odaiba district of the capital.

Hokkaido, the prefectures of Chiba, Osaka, Nagasaki and Okinawa, and the cities of Yokohama and Chiba have all earmarked budgets for casino-related studies this fiscal year, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey.

A supra-partisan group of lawmakers in December submitted to the Diet a bill aimed to promoting the establishment of casinos in Japan.

The Diet will likely start deliberations in the current session.

Asahi Shimbun reporters recently visited overseas casinos to see what could be in store for Japan if gambling dens become legal.

Over three months, a 63-year-old South Korean man made 27 visits to Kangwon Land Casino in Gangwon province in the northern part of the country.

When an Asahi Shimbun reporter met him, his eyes were bloodshot. He had played roulette throughout the night–and lost about 700,000 won (about 66,000 yen, or $660).

And for the first time, he acknowledged that he had a problem and received counseling at the casino’s Addiction Care Center.

The man said he became obsessed with the casino about one-and-a-half years ago after winning 3 million won in just one day. Determined to repeat that bonanza, he quit his hobby of horse riding and refrained from buying alcohol and cigarettes to gain money to gamble at the casino.

On his days off from work, he traveled on an expressway bus from Seoul to the casino without telling his family about the trip.

“I never bring my friends (to this casino) because I don’t want to ruin them,” the man said.

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