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The committee considered the bill once, on 3 February, and has since taken no further action.
Meanwhile the government has been approaching the issue via a new bill. Sports minister Sadok Mourali said in November 2024 that a gambling and sports betting bill had been circulated for consultation. Twenty-six public institutions received that consultation, including the central bank, Competition Council and financial intelligence authority.
A year later he said the draft had been completely revised to bring it into line with international standards on sports betting manipulation and money laundering.
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One exception, he notes, could be the Seminole Tribe of Florida and their proposed Hard Rock Resort Casino in Tomakomai, Hokkaido.
“They are currently aggressively growing the Hard Rock Casino brand, with developments under way in Las Vegas, New York City, Greece, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. They will put forth an attractive development proposal, and it appears that they now have the support of local government,” Klebanow notes.
As highlighted by Klebanow, Japan’s fragmented approach to gambling regulation may impact the development of Japan’s IR gambling industry, and Suzanne Perilloux Leckert, co-founding partner of Convergence Strategy Group somewhat agrees.
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Unfortunately, because of that attorney-client privilege, it is difficult to know what types of ethical dilemmas Hasselback is facing. However, it’s likely just the mere hint at issues will be enough for IPI to find itself, once again, being more closely scrutinized. Where that leads is anyone’s guess, given gaming regulators’ reluctance to hold the company accountable for its actions.
IPI now has until this Friday to find a new lawyer to carry the six-case workload Hasselback had, but will most likely use this as an excuse to delay the ongoing legal battles. It won’t get very far with that, though, and perhaps Judge Kennedy expected IPI to try something. She added in her ruling that the attorney’s exit “may cause some delay, [but] that delay is not so much so that it would cause significant prejudice or adversely and materially affect the plaintiff.”
This particular lawsuit involving Fox Financial, one of a growing list IPI is battling, centers on an arrangement the company made with a third party, Forson Holdings. That entity had leased property from Fox in 2016, but fell behind. IPI had signed as a guarantor of that lease agreement and, as such, was responsible for covering Forson in the event payments weren’t made. However, it decided it didn’t need to follow the terms of the contract.
