{"id":2966,"date":"2020-01-30T10:35:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T10:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=2966"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:23:22","slug":"melco-japan-casino-bribery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-japan-casino-bribery","title":{"rendered":"Melco cooperating in Japan casino bribery case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hong Kong based company is working with prosecutors in relation to the bribery case surrounding Japanese politician, Tsukasa Akimoto .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan.- Gaming operator Melco Resorts &amp; Entertainment Ltd is currently cooperating with Japanese prosecutors regarding the bribery investigation into Japanese politician, Tsukasa Akimoto, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/akimoto-arrested-casino-bribe\"><em><strong>Akimoto was arrested on December 25, 2019<\/strong><\/em><\/a> suspected of receiving \u00a53.7 million (\u20ac30,802) in bribes from Chinese Gambling operator\u00a0500.com, which,\u00a0according to reports, wanted him to increase the number of planned IR locations in the country to five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 48-year-old member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party was a known proponent for the introduction of integrated resorts in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Reuters, Melco declined to comment on whether it is under investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CEO of the gaming operator, Lawrence Ho, has repeatedly expressed the group\u2019s intention to secure a license in Japan after the country&#8217;s parliament approved the opening of three casinos, describing it as a \u201ccentral focus\u201d for the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan has authorized licenses to build three resorts with Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka among the cities expected to bid for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-japan-casino-resort\">Melco currently has plans to develop an integrated resort in Yokohama<\/a><\/strong><\/em> at a cost of at least US$10 billion, with MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Wynn Resorts Ltd and Galaxy Entertainment Group putting their hats in the ring as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong based company is working with prosecutors in relation to the bribery case surrounding Japanese politician, Tsukasa Akimoto .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd is cooperating with Japanese prosecutors in a bribery investigation involving politician Tsukasa Akimoto, who is accused of receiving bribes from 500.com to expand the number of planned Integrated Resort (IR) locations in Japan. This development occurs as Melco, alongside other major global operators, actively pursues one of the three authorized IR licenses in Japan, particularly for a proposed US$10 billion project in Yokohama. The situation underscores the heightened regulatory scrutiny and governance challenges within Japan's emerging iGaming and hospitality market.","focusai_entities":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, Tsukasa Akimoto, 500.com, Lawrence Ho, Shinzo Abe, Liberal Democratic Party, MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Wynn Resorts Ltd, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Reuters","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, Japan, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.97), operator_casino (0.95), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.96), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Japan IR timeline?","query":"How might the ongoing bribery investigation and Melco's cooperation impact the overall timeline for Japan's Integrated Resort licensing process and the selection of host cities?"},{"label":"Due Diligence for IRs?","query":"What enhanced due diligence and governance frameworks are global operators implementing to mitigate regulatory and reputational risks when pursuing high-stakes IR licenses in emerging markets like Japan?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,157,16338],"tags":[470,4503,665],"class_list":["post-2966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-japan","tag-legal","tag-melco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2966"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2986,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966\/revisions\/2986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}