About this app
What is Volcano?
How is this insanity even happening?
The good news is that the only way lockdowns can continue is if they can be funded through more debt. And that is about to end. What happens then, is a different world. A new world.
Hopefully it will be a better one. It’s up to each and every one of us to make it better, once all this mess is cleared out for good, along with all the considerable collateral damage.
What is Volcano?
The regulatory framework strictly keeps the casino component in check. Casino floor space is capped at 3% of the total floor area of the IR, while Japanese residents are restricted to three visits per week and 10 visits within any 28-day period. Each visit also carries a mandatory ¥6,000 entry fee, reinforcing the government’s intent to curb excessive gambling even as it opens the door to casinos.
Japan’s path to IR legalisation was not straight forward. The IR Promotion Act, which set Japan on the road to casino-integrated resorts, was passed in December 2016 after a contentious debate. Nearly two years later came the IR Implementation Act, which laid out the regulatory frameworks for casinos, from entry restrictions to measures addressing gambling addiction and other social concerns. Yet even as the government pitched IRs as a catalyst for tourism, regional development and economic growth, opposition remained aggressive.
Among the opposing forces was Kenji Eda, a prominent House of Representatives lawmaker from Yokohama and a senior figure in the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Eda has been a vocal critic of the government’s IR push, raising concerns over gambling addiction, the economic impact on local businesses and whether the casino-led model would deliver the promised benefits.
What is Volcano?
Introduced in 1998, ClubGRANTS was designed to channel a share of gambling-linked profits from gaming clubs back into local communities. This includes health and welfare services as well as community development and sporting clubs.
According to the Gaming Machine Tax Act 2001, a tax rebate of up to 1.85% of a club’s gaming machine profits is made available to any registered club that records profits of over $1 million (US$715,000) during a tax year.
This is only possible if the club in question allocates at least 0.75% of prescribed profits over $1 million to community-focused activities and services. These profits make up two-thirds of the ClubGRANTS scheme funding.
