CNN – While Japan’s economy continues to falter, lawmakers are betting big that the casino industry can swoop in and lift it out of the doldrums. Gambling is currently illegal in Japan, though many play pachinko, a quintessentially Japanese game often likened to pinball. While cash prizes are forbidden, many pachinko parlors work on a gray economy where prizes are exchanged — off-premises — for hard currency. This week, a major conference focusing on the future of the industry opened in Tokyo. It comes at a time when key legislation is being pushed through Japan’s parliament that could pave the…

Euro Sport – Australia’s National Rugby League will investigate allegations that one of its top officials knew about Canterbury Bulldogs forward Ryan Tandy’s gambling problems but failed to take action before the player was convicted of match-fixing. Tandy, banned from the NRL for life after attempting to fix a 2010 match, was found dead last week at his parents’ house in eastern New South Wales state having suffered an apparent drug overdose. State media reported this week that the NRL’s head of football Todd Greenberg was made aware of Tandy’s gambling problems when he was chief executive of the Sydney-based…

Bangkok Post – A Japanese gambler is taking on tax authorities by claiming his bad bets on horse races were a deductible business expense, a report said Wednesday. The man, a civil servant in Hokkaido, won a whopping 7.84 billion yen ($76.9 million) over six years to 2010, but lost 7.27 billion yen in the process, according to the English edition of the Asahi Shimbun. He declared the balance of 570 million yen as “miscellaneous income,” arguing that because his other winnings were cancelled out by his losses, the losing stubbs represented a legitimate cost of his business, the paper…

Gaming Intelligence – Survey results released this week by the UK Gambling Commission reveal a small rise in gambling participation levels, with 56 per cent of respondents having participated in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks, up from 55 per cent of respondents in March 2013. Land-based gambling continues to account for the lion’s share of activity, with 71 per cent of those gambling in the past four weeks doing so offline, while 16 per cent of respondents said that they gambled online, up from 15 per cent a year ago. Excluding people who only…

Calvin Ayre – Singapore’s self-exclusion option, which allows citizens to voluntary ban themselves from entering the country’s two casinos, has now been expanded after the launch of a new centralized self-exclusion system. With this new system, Singaporeans can now voluntarily exclude themselves from other gambling establishments in the country, including jackpot clubs and sports betting clubs. Under the old program, citizens could only have themselves banned from entering the Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands casinos. More than 200,000 casino exclusion orders have been issued to date, of which around 153,000 are the self-exclusion variety. Currently, Singapore has 73…

NWF Daily News – An effort to relieve greyhound track owners of regulations requiring them to throw money at a losing venture failed in Tallahassee this legislative session. So too did an attempt to better protect the animals at Northwest Florida’s Ebro facility and the state’s 11 other racing parks. State Sen. President Don Gaetz was disappointed in the failure of the animal welfare bills, but said efforts to clean up greyhound racing could be considered again if a special session is called to discuss gaming issues. “The governor is shopping right now the idea of a special session dealing…