Economist – Kabukicho, Japan’s biggest fleshpot, swarms over a crowded one-kilometre block of Tokyo. It is a gaudy patchwork of clubs, massage parlours and seedy hotels, a short walk from what is probably the world’s busiest train station. Hoodlums from Yakuza crime gangs tout illicit thrills from a well-thumbed menu of sex, drugs and gambling. Takeshi Iwaya, a politician, wants to pull gambling out of the seedy company it keeps in Kabukicho and put it into giant family-friendly casinos. He is lobbying for Japan to lift its ban on casinos. A share of Macau’s eye-watering gambling revenues is the goal….

From Reuters Like many visitors to the Casino Royale Goa on a rainy Saturday night on India’s western coast, Salim Budhwani said he does not gamble but also had no objection to the betting at the busy tables downstairs. Despite socially conservative India’s ambivalence about gambling, consultancy firm KPMG estimated that $60 billion was wagered in the country in 2010. Much of the gambling is illegal, but attitudes are slowly changing as more Asian countries embrace gaming as a revenue generator and tourist draw. Legal gambling in the increasingly wealthy country of 1.2 billion is limited to state lotteries, horse…