This Smells Like Hypocrisy

[danherbias07]

As I see it, they seem to like and keep traditional gambling games. Ban those games that are not included in their history like card games but Plinko, dice, slots, and horse racing will stay as allowed games to gamble with. I don't think this is about addiction or what, they may have been trying to avoid gamblers to DIY in their own houses. With card games, that can be done but I doubt one household will buy a slot machine or a horse track just to please themselves. Japanese culture is known for its discipline so I doubt they didn't carefully study the ups and downs of the rule they made. It's about keeping the culture but not being overpowered.

[Viscore]

Aren't those sports and games that you mentioned served a huge part in Japan's culture? Maybe that's the reason why. While it may seem like it's hypocrisy, these events and sports that you mentioned doesn't also seem to push lots of gamblers to the edge and into addiction hence why they allow them under the direct supervision of the government. Dice, slots, cards, roulettes, most of these casino games finish fast, and people lose money fast with these games too, and they are more prone into addiction and getting into debt compared to those games/sports you just mentioned.

That’s also the reason I’ve been thinking of. Horse racing and lottery could be part of Japan’s culture and so they have to restore it and continue practicing. While most of the casino games will only exist for the house edge, gamblers will only resort into losing their funds and may even drown into heavy debt if addiction becomes uncontrolled. So I cannot blame the government of Japan if the rest of the games are banned, except for horse racing and lottery as they also contribute funds to the government.

[coin-investor]

Gambling in Japan is not black and white. In fact, gambling is considered a criminal offence and is generally banned across the country.

Those that are found gambling can face large fines and even serve jail time.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Betting on horse racing and the lottery are two forms of gambling that are accepted in Japan.

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

https://gamblingnewsmagazine.com/gambling-in-japan/

I agree if gambling is banned in their country it should ban all forms and kinds of gambling, but it seems they let the other gambling events because its part of their tradition and culture, what they are banning are casinos, they do not want casinos in their country because they believe it will ruin their morals, because Japanese are known for their high standard of morals like honesty, I read in Japan that if you forget your umbrella in one corner in a park you can still get it even if it passes a few times.
Japan is a very interesting country and some of its beliefs are quite hard to grasp.

[tabas]

They all have the jurisdiction to ban to certain games that they don't like. There must be a cultural reason why only a few of them are allowed to be played and then the others are outright banned. Well, I don't want to dig deeper on it but soon I'll find out the reason personally when I get to fly there for a vacation and try those gambling places that are legally operating. I guess there's a certain reason for that and will end up with the conclusion that due to the usual reason, taxation.

[harizen]

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

I'm not fully aware of how gambling works in Japan but I don't see any hypocrisy here. They are not totally the whole gambling as 100% illegal.

In a gambling-friendly country, there's always legal gambling and illegal gambling.

Obviously, those legal gambling should only be patronized by their citizens. Their country, their rules.

[goinmerry]

If that's what the law said, better if we just have to accept it. There are some activities and happenings in other countries that we might see not good in our eyes. We don't understand their tradition and culture so we don't have the right to call their law referring to gambling hypocrisy.

It's a good thing that they still allowed some gambling and not totally making gambling illegal like in some countries where no gambling type is allowed to operate. I can't live in a country where gambling is totally illegal as that was boring.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

If that's what the law said, better if we just have to accept it. There are some activities and happenings in other countries that we might see not good in our eyes. We don't understand their tradition and culture so we don't have the right to call their law referring to gambling hypocrisy.

It's a good thing that they still allowed some gambling and not totally making gambling illegal like in some countries where no gambling type is allowed to operate. I can't live in a country where gambling is totally illegal as that was boring.

Yeah, we have to respect the tradition and culture of the Japanese people. For outsiders this might look like a hypocrisy because they are allowing certain type of gambling. On the other hand the Japanese government might not see it like that, its more of giving their people some outlet to stay and have fun but at the same time not getting into the addiction like any other Asian nationalities.

So there are negative and positive of it, specially for tax purpose of their of government. It's hard to criticized them with this kind of laws, and in this data, shows that indeed even with this kind of regulation, there are still going to be widespread addiction.

According to a 2017 survey by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, 3.6% of Japanese adults—some 3.2 million people—are thought to suffer gambling addiction at some point in their life. This is startlingly high compared to rates in other industrialized nations like France and the Netherlands, where it is 1.2% and 1.9%, respectively.

The survey found that over the previous year, 0.8% of Japanese, some 700,000 people, exhibited behavior consistent with gambling addiction, and that addicts on average spent ¥58,000 a month on their affliction. It also named pachinko and slot machines as the most popular forms of wagering.

https://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00367/

[Silberman]

Gambling in Japan is not black and white. In fact, gambling is considered a criminal offence and is generally banned across the country.

Those that are found gambling can face large fines and even serve jail time.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Betting on horse racing and the lottery are two forms of gambling that are accepted in Japan.

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

https://gamblingnewsmagazine.com/gambling-in-japan/

Like most of the time this is about the money, at a great deal of countries around the world lotteries are owned by the government as they are big money makers, it is just that at Japan it seems the government seems to have an even greater control of gambling than in other countries and they want to keep that monopoly for themselves, and I cannot blame them as the amount of money the gambling industry can generates is enormous.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

Gambling in Japan is not black and white. In fact, gambling is considered a criminal offence and is generally banned across the country.

Those that are found gambling can face large fines and even serve jail time.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Betting on horse racing and the lottery are two forms of gambling that are accepted in Japan.

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

This is the reason why there is a saying:  In every rule theres an exemption.  There is an explanation why horse betting and lottery are accepted in Japan.  It is possible that these two gambling may give the government income through taxes and fees. Besides these two gambling can be easily moderated or regulated by the government.  Another thing is that horse racing is probably acknowledged by the Japanese government a cultural tradition since horse racing has been popular in Japan for centuries.

About other forms of betting that are rewarded by in-game currency, they are not considered gambling since the money exchanged is not for cash so they are considered legal.

   - But it can still be considered gambling in the end, because there was a betting procedure. The only surprising thing is that there are so many gambling games, why did they make horse racing legitimate in their country?

Why, does this horse racing game bring so much revenue to the Japanese government that they only recognize it?

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Aren't those sports and games that you mentioned served a huge part in Japan's culture?

That's what I thought, if it would be cultural.

As I see it, they seem to like and keep traditional gambling games. Ban those games that are not included in their history like card games but Plinko, dice, slots, and horse racing will stay as allowed games to gamble with.

But anyway, banning most of the gambling and allowing at least the lottery is not unique to Japan as far as I know. It's happened in the US too, at least in some states.

Like most of the time this is about the money, at a great deal of countries around the world lotteries are owned by the government as they are big money makers, it is just that at Japan it seems the government seems to have an even greater control of gambling than in other countries and they want to keep that monopoly for themselves, and I cannot blame them as the amount of money the gambling industry can generates is enormous.

I don't think the economic issue is exclusive. It is probably the main reason, but the thing about the lottery is that it has less risk of problem gambling.

[mindrust]

Gambling in Japan is not black and white. In fact, gambling is considered a criminal offence and is generally banned across the country.

Those that are found gambling can face large fines and even serve jail time.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Betting on horse racing and the lottery are two forms of gambling that are accepted in Japan.

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

https://gamblingnewsmagazine.com/gambling-in-japan/

Not only that, if they are serious about banning gambling then they should shut down the stock markets too because that’s the biggest casino in every country.

Gambling is always in our daily lives. Nobody can avoid it. Every choice we make has some gambling element inside because we can’t know the future but only can make predictions which is the basics of gambling.

[xSkylarx]

I am also shocked by this as they banned those other gambling games as they can be addictive but what Ive found reading and searching is that horse races have a long history for them so it means it is already their culture and they are doing this, the same with other games like a lottery as the government earn money from it for their country. Though they said that it is for entertainment purposes I don't see a reason why other games are banned and those types of games are not.

[Wexnident]

The moment I knew that Japan and gambling were a topic about bans, I knew horse racing would've been involved. I'm just guessing it's because it's pretty far from the general gambling games (though let's be real, ANY game can be used in any form of gambling) that most casinos are known for like poker. And from what I know, Horse Racing is really big in Japan as well.

Though I think if anyone were to find any sort of "solid" cause as to why they ain't really going to find any. The Japanese government just allows it, and that's that, it's in their jurisdiction anyway. It's not about what they "fear" as well, I guess at this point it's just they want to build up their own solid preference in terms of games used in gambling.

[GigaBit]

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

Although gambling is prohibited in many countries of the world, its use is constantly increasing day by day. The Japanese government has allowed gambling on a number of issues that were previously prevalent. They basically think that gambling as the source of entertainment. But I think this is just an official announcement. If you can see the real picture then certainly something different can be visible. A large amount of money used in gambling and also conducted in many prohibited countries today. The government does not have any information. But those governments are also quite aware that the gambling industry has considerable influenced by their citizen as well.

[libert19]

Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

There is fear when you have to answer somebody, governments has none to answer hence no fear.

Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful.

Wikipedia answers, it's in order to increase the income of national and local governments as well as to offer a form of entertainment.


Gambling In Japan

[Kakmakr]

It is difficult to understand the reasoning from government law makers, if you do not know the background of each individual that took part in the process to make those laws.

In my country.... government controlled Lottery systems are legal, but all other forms of Lottery systems are illegal. The government have regulatory oversight over the national lottery and they benefit from the taxes that are generated and also the projects that are funded by the Lottery.

You will have to look at government projects that are funded by these industries to see why they might allow them to operate, because they are obviously getting something from this decision.  

[davis196]

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

1.Lotteries are allowed in most countries in the world, even in the countries where gambling is banned. Nothing unusual here.
2.Wait what? There's horse racing in Japan? I never knew that the Japanese can gamble on horse racing. I learned something new today.

I guess that having a total ban over gambling would simply throw the entire gambling industry in the hands of the Japanese mob(Yakuza).
I've repeated multiple times that having strict regulation over gambling is way better than a total ban. Banning alcohol in the USA during the 20s and 30s didn't work.
Having one form of gambling allowed while others are banned might seem like a hypocrisy, but I guess that the Japanese lawmakers consider some forms of gambling to be less harmful(when it comes to falling into gambling addiction).

[passwordnow]

Let us just respect and understand, rules are rules and whether there's a fear or none, there's really no fear of the government. AFAIK, each prefecture has a different law or specific laws for activities and that's why for some cities it may not be allowed to gamble but for some the cities in Japan, it's allowed.

Though they said that it is for entertainment purposes I don't see a reason why other games are banned and those types of games are not.

Just as the other with history, it's possible that there's also a reason behind those bans and that's why they did that for some other type of gambling games.

[Oasisman]

Gambling in Japan is not black and white. In fact, gambling is considered a criminal offence and is generally banned across the country.

Those that are found gambling can face large fines and even serve jail time.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Betting on horse racing and the lottery are two forms of gambling that are accepted in Japan.

To me, this seems hypocritical. You claim that gambling is illegal, but you may bet on horse racing, Pachinko, bicycle racing, boat racing, and Mahjong, which baffles me. I do not seem to understand. Why is that so? You claim it is unlawful, yet wagering on games that are overseen by the government is not unlawful. Is this not hypocritical? What does the government fear?

https://gamblingnewsmagazine.com/gambling-in-japan/

There might be a huge reason for this. We all know that Japan is one of the most disciplined country, I guess they are just avoiding their people to get more involved with gambling, so they are limiting those activities where you can place your bets.
We never know, these lotteries are government owned and they are implementing charities from all the bets accumulated within the country, just like the lottery here in my country.

[Accardo]

While it's always safe to abide by the rules of any country regarding gambling, we must think of the reasons why the Government chose some particular games over the rest. First, it'll be wrong to remove completely gambling in a country, looking at the way the article sounds, if left for them they'll ban gambling. Second, the two accepted games makes them more profits, by promoting their local games and keeping citizens and tourists entertained in the country. Lastly, no lottery games pays off 100%, some pay out 97% and take 3% of any game played using their machine. So, I'd say that despite how long you play using the lottery games, players will always lose money which will profit the Government. Even those that win big jackpots on the long run would bet the whole winning back into gambling. I think the Government wants to make more money from citizens through gambling at same time rescue addicted players too.