Japanese man gambled away a huge Covid-19 relief funds mistakenly sent to him

[Finestream]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Considering that its still not his own, and he knew it clearly from the start, so he should have acted responsible enough to return it to the sender. But instead, he used it to gamble and lose everything. That's when he started to commit a very big fault. Good thing he finally realized to repay it little by little. However, the sender should also be given sanction for his negligence. Its certainly a very huge amount so he should have been very careful with his transaction.

[Pamadar]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Considering that its still not his own, and he knew it clearly from the start, so he should have acted responsible enough to return it to the sender. But instead, he used it to gamble and lose everything. That's when he started to commit a very big fault. Good thing he finally realized to repay it little by little. However, the sender should also be given sanction for his negligence. Its certainly a very huge amount so he should have been very careful with his transaction.

Both have mistake but the fact that the receiver used the money for gambling that's an irresponsible action.

He knew that it's not his money and the best practice was either send it back to the sender or report it to the bank to let them know
that someone mistakenly sends him a huge amount.

And also, to the sender, if it's not really intended, or it's just a mistake, he should also be liable knowing that it's a huge amount
and the purpose is to help. He should be more responsible for checking all the details before proceeding to send out.

[Wakate]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

It all depends on the irony of the matter since we don't know the true expect story. If you mistaken received money I'm your bank especially when you are not expecting such kind of fund in your bank account. It is better to wait for days or week before planing to use the fund or better still, writing to the police station so you could stay save from later refund or regret. 

I have I friend that received an alert of fund that he was not expecting. He quickly transfer part from his account to friends accounts and watch for like 3 days. The remaining balance was withdrawn from his account which was a mistake from his bank. He later paid the remaining because the fund was not his own.

[bitbollo]

Both have mistake but the fact that the receiver used the money for gambling that's an irresponsible action.

He knew that it's not his money and the best practice was either send it back to the sender or report it to the bank to let them know
that someone mistakenly sends him a huge amount.

And also, to the sender, if it's not really intended, or it's just a mistake, he should also be liable knowing that it's a huge amount
and the purpose is to help. He should be more responsible for checking all the details before proceeding to send out.

absolutely agree! this is not "a mistake". this is bad also from a moral/ethic point of view.
when you receive funds "that are not yours" it is really stupid to throw them away like this ... because now you also have a big debt that in one way or another you will have to repay! really a stupid error.
More than anything else I would also call it a "pathological move" because after receiving such a figure I guess just some one with gambling problem will throw away in a casino!

[Mauser]

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Sounds like he knew something was wrong, because why did he make the same size withdrawals and gambled it all away in a few weeks? If he is addicted to gambling and has no more control over his finances than it's understandable, otherwise I think it's wrong. If I would ever get a large bank transfer by mistake I would never think about starting to gamble with it heavily. Even if the law wouldn't be clear on that and there could be a chance that I can keep the money. What if the money was send by mistake by some criminals and they find out my name and adress? I am sure they wouldn't be so understanding and accept an apology. And what if the judge orders him to repay all the money, including the one he has lost? It could ruin him financially forever.

[robelneo]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

If you are thinking right, you will ask where it could possibly come from and why me, but he is blinded by the huge amount of money he could have to buy luxury items but prefer to enjoy it gambling on his heart's desire, I think he is not gambling to make money he just wants to satisfy his inner enjoyment and feeling and he can accomplish by doing the things that he loves and that is gambling.
This is one example that those addicted to gambling are never satisfied with any amount of money they are holding they are more satisfied playing whether they lose or win, it's the feeling not the money.

[LogitechMouse]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Considering that its still not his own, and he knew it clearly from the start, so he should have acted responsible enough to return it to the sender. But instead, he used it to gamble and lose everything. That's when he started to commit a very big fault. Good thing he finally realized to repay it little by little. However, the sender should also be given sanction for his negligence. Its certainly a very huge amount so he should have been very careful with his transaction.

Let's assume that the COVID Funds came from the government since most of the time, that huge amount mostly came to the government. I think the supervisor of that sender/s must remove them because of how irresponsible they are.

That huge amount of money will help many people who are having a hard time in this pandemic, but a single person took the advantage and gambled the money he doesn't own at first place. This is what greed can do. You will do things that you shouldn't have just because you are greedy. Well, it's a good thing that the gambler is paying it, but hope this will be a lesson to him and I hope this will not happen again to anybody.

[hahay]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

If you are thinking right, you will ask where it could possibly come from and why me, but he is blinded by the huge amount of money he could have to buy luxury items but prefer to enjoy it gambling on his heart's desire, I think he is not gambling to make money he just wants to satisfy his inner enjoyment and feeling and he can accomplish by doing the things that he loves and that is gambling.
This is one example that those addicted to gambling are never satisfied with any amount of money they are holding they are more satisfied playing whether they lose or win, it's the feeling not the money.

It makes perfect sense, with him receiving a sudden large amount of money he doesn't choose to keep it like investing or buying a luxury item and an asset. But instead it is spent in gambling, which means he is a person who is not always short of money to finance his bills and lifestyle. Because if he was a poor man, then it was very unlikely that such a large amount of money would be spent in gambling. But if he has the mind and common sense then it doesn't matter whether he is rich or not, at least with the big money he gets, he will certainly be detained and think more carefully about using the money. Instead of doubling it in gambling, if it is realized he has hit the jackpot without gambling and it is better if he realizes it.

[Pierre 2]

Honestly news at bbc is written terrible by editor or writer or whatever who did it. It mentions the guy "withdrew" money - so at first sight it looks like he withdrew from bank. But in another part of it it says government was gonna send people money as "a cash". What exactly cash means there? In other words if this is bank issue, he will surely be sued by bank; if not and it was cash sent to him by governmemt, its oversight by government, its their own fault to send so much money to untrusted person. He may have gambling habit but, that's not exactly to blame here.

[Oilacris]

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Sounds like he knew something was wrong, because why did he make the same size withdrawals and gambled it all away in a few weeks? If he is addicted to gambling and has no more control over his finances than it's understandable, otherwise I think it's wrong. If I would ever get a large bank transfer by mistake I would never think about starting to gamble with it heavily. Even if the law wouldn't be clear on that and there could be a chance that I can keep the money. What if the money was send by mistake by some criminals and they find out my name and adress? I am sure they wouldn't be so understanding and accept an apology. And what if the judge orders him to repay all the money, including the one he has lost? It could ruin him financially forever.

If you are someone who doesn't really like to get involved with some possible risk of getting yourself fucked up on the future then it's just sensible that you shouldn't spend the money which aren't yours so that you won't really be having problems later on because even if you do put up into your mind that it isn't your fault but still you would really be finding yourself in big trouble on spending money or funds which aren yours.

You aren't that dumb that it wasn't wrong in the first place because who would be the one on expecting to get big cash or funds directly into his account without any possible source?

[Silberman]

Both.

If no mistake being done, no person will gamble with that money. Going to the root cause of all, there will be no problem if the first problem didn't occur.

But as someone who's good enough, despite the mistake of sending funds to your account, you shouldn't gamble with it or spend it to the things that you need because it's not even your money. It is not like finders keepers.

However on the first case it was an honest mistake from the ones sending the money, and even if right now we have a lot of automated systems to deal with stuff like that no system is perfect so we cannot really blame them for something like this as everyone is bound to make some mistakes, however this person instead of reporting this to their bank or to keep the money so it can eventually be given out to their rightful owners used the money to gamble, something that is incorrect no matter how we look at it.

[Rengga Jati]

It all depends on the irony of the matter since we don't know the true expect story. If you mistaken received money I'm your bank especially when you are not expecting such kind of fund in your bank account. It is better to wait for days or week before planing to use the fund or better still, writing to the police station so you could stay save from later refund or regret. 

Yes, it might be wiser to wait a few days to confirm a few things. It could be someone contacting us, either from the bank or related parties. And maybe one way is to confirm with the bank. Can't we also find out where the transfer came from?
Transfer errors like this are actually very common. However, this is big news because the amount is quite fantastic and is used for gambling.

Well in this case it may be different from the thinking of normal people in general. Because it could be that the person is a gambler or a gambling addict who won't think much when he gets the money. If so, what should be done? yes of course both parties are responsible for this.

[serjent05]

Honestly news at bbc is written terrible by editor or writer or whatever who did it. It mentions the guy "withdrew" money - so at first sight it looks like he withdrew from bank. But in another part of it it says government was gonna send people money as "a cash". What exactly cash means there? In other words if this is bank issue, he will surely be sued by bank; if not and it was cash sent to him by governmemt, its oversight by government, its their own fault to send so much money to untrusted person. He may have gambling habit but, that's not exactly to blame here.

The way I understand it, the amount is sent to his bank account.  Though I agree, the story looks like fiction since some major details don't match.  Like it was stated that all money was withdrawn in x amount in 2 weeks' time.  If we compute the total amount, it did not tally with the amount deposited into the suspect's account.

The sender should also be held reliable for the stated crime.  I think that the sender got the major amount of money while the guy just got the calculated amount from the given daily bank withdrawal.

[KTChampions]

Honestly news at bbc is written terrible by editor or writer or whatever who did it. It mentions the guy "withdrew" money - so at first sight it looks like he withdrew from bank. But in another part of it it says government was gonna send people money as "a cash". What exactly cash means there? In other words if this is bank issue, he will surely be sued by bank; if not and it was cash sent to him by governmemt, its oversight by government, its their own fault to send so much money to untrusted person. He may have gambling habit but, that's not exactly to blame here.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but if someone sends you money by mistake, it doesn't become yours (under the laws of most countries) in order for you to acquire ownership of something, there must be more meaningful procedures than simply moving funds from one account to another. It seems to me that if this person is not accommodating in a dispute with justice, then he can be put in jail for many simpler reasons - for example, tax evasion.

[romero121]

The banking authorities should've been careful handling such a huge fund. In my view it looks like the person is into gambling addiction and that's the reason why he had used such a big amount in gambling and lost everything within two weeks time. Two Weeks time is something long, the bank should've taken action within few days. There is difference between sending the funds to 436 beneficiaries and to a single account. Anyhow justice needs to be given to the beneficiaries as the person himself have accepted he have used the funds.

[uneng]

The banking authorities should've been careful handling such a huge fund. In my view it looks like the person is into gambling addiction and that's the reason why he had used such a big amount in gambling and lost everything within two weeks time. Two Weeks time is something long, the bank should've taken action within few days. There is difference between sending the funds to 436 beneficiaries and to a single account. Anyhow justice needs to be given to the beneficiaries as the person himself have accepted he have used the funds.

That is actually true. Tremendous failure from the bank to have sent the money to the man's account instead of the 463 low-income households. If it were a small and simple mistake, like misunderstanding a number or name that would be understandable, because these things happen really often, but sending 357,400$ into one person's account instead of sharing it among 463 is too much and should be immediately perceived!

It would be interesting if the news brought informations about the responsible for the transaction and what he has to say about the fact as well.

[TopT3ns]

Considering that he lost this money gradually, it will be difficult for him to claim that he did it under the influence of emotions or that he did not have time to figure out that it was not his money. Apparently, in addition to compensation for material damage, he will face prosecution and a prison term (however, I heard about the humaneness of the Japanese justice system, perhaps the punishment will be softer).

I think this is really sad because he used money that was accidentally sent to his wallet but ended up in jail and had to involve a very complicated legal route, it's better if he gets the funds then it's better to let it take longer so that those who make the wrong transfer will think that the wallet they have is not active or has not been used and waits for it to be unused before everything is safe.

[Slow death]

I'm shocked that someone takes money that isn't theirs to go play. But is this story really real? i mean we are talking about japan where the banking system must undoubtedly be better than my country's banking system so how did the person transfer money to the wrong account and the bank took days to return all the money to the right account? because they even knew that the guy used 600,000 a day to gamble and because he must have spent several days taking 600,000 to play and another thing like the bank didn't demand that the guy addicted to games show the origin of the money that was in his account ? this story seems suspicious to me

[Erdogan]

just as the title states, a man in Japan mistakenly sent 46.3m yen to his bank account which was supposed to be shared among 436 people in their town. the article says that the man gambled away the money by withdrawing 600k yen daily for two weeks and gambles it in online casinos and when the authority finally contacted him the money has already been gambled and gone. initially the man refuse to pay back the money that was mistakenly sent to him but after some time he decided to pay it back bit by bit. the town is also suing him for this incident.

you can read the full story here
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61490436

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

Of course the man is obligated to return the money. I don't know what the law is in Japan, but in few countries you cant even take the money you find on the street. In many countries, if you find any money or it falls into your hands in some other way, you must refer it to the authorities. Only if their owner is not found for a year, you can keep them for yourself. In this case, there is no doubt that this man spent not his money and must return it.

[lienfaye]

now, I have a question, do you think the man is entirely at fault or someone should also be responsible?

The particular bank mistakenly sent the money to this man's bank account, which means this bank who sent the money is also at fault. They should be careful not to make mistake especially its a huge amount, and why they didnt verify if the receiver is the one who supposed to receive the money? Its also their negligence.

On the other side, the man spent the money in gambling. He's aware its not his money so he should coordinate to the bank if he has the conscience because its not his own. Thats the consequence of his action thus its just right for him to pay it back and face the lawsuit.