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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Justin McCurry in Osaka

Backlash in Osaka as ‘Dream Island’ leads race to open Japan’s first casino

A pachinko parlour in Tokyo
A pachinko parlour in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, pre-pandemic. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

The focus of Japan’s quest to open its first casino is a human-made island in Osaka that, if the city’s government gets its way, will end decades of wrangling over the country’s fraught relationship with poker tables and slot machines.

On a recent weekday morning there was little to suggest that Yumeshima – “Dream Island” – could, by the end of the decade, be the site of an unprecedented experiment with gambling in the world’s third biggest economy.

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