From 15:20 to 15:40 on the weekends and holidays

[RIDER 00]

If you're in a large crowd of people in Japan on Saturday, Sunday, or a Monday that's a national holiday anywhere from 15:20 to 15:40, you should notice a decent amount of people pulling out their smartphones to watch some TV. I'm not talking about a small percentage here. I was in Tokyo Dome the other day and about 15% of all the people around me were doing this and/or letting their friends/family watch too.

Wanna know why that is?

It's because that's when the big keiba (horse) races start. By big, I mean the graded races (G1/G2/G3) and a lot of big money is being bet by everyone from college students to old men and women wasting their monthly pension payments. (Heck, throw some underage high schoolers into the mix too)

As I have stated before, a lot more Japanese people are into leisurely gambling than is commonly perceived, especially by foreigners in Japan since we have our own cultural biases towards gambling. There are a bunch of people who gamble on the weekends doing pachinko, keiba, keirin, kyotei, etc., so I shudder to think what will happen when Tokyo finally gets a Vegas-style casino.

To close out the thought on keiba, it has the potential for winning a lot of money, but the odds are horrible when there's a sure bet on a horse coming in. In fact, it's too much of a risk if that horse does not come in that you're better off trying to hit the long shots (3-ren-tan, etc.). It does feels great when you win based on your own analysis of what horse(s) are gonna come in, and this addiction is what keeps people coming back. Many years ago, I lost the potential to win 50man yen by a 50% probability. (Of the two horses remaining, I picked the wrong one) I have never really recovered from that emotionally, and as I have always known, I have never even come close to those kind of odds again.

Regarding the future casino in Tokyo, they are apparently planning to charge an entrance fee of about 2000 yen to all Japanese nationals. Foreigners including foreign residents (permanent and special status included) will get in for free. Guess we 外人 finally caught a minor break.

 

[MikeH]

Guess we 外人 finally caught a minor break.

Break in the meaning the government don't care if we go broke in the casino as we cannot go asking for social security payments anyway.

 

[Ken1988]

I was in Tokyo Dome the other day and about 15% of all the people around me were doing this and/or letting their friends/family watch too.

Isn't it because a large off-track betting office of the Japan racing association is there right next to Tokyo Dome? There is another one just off the south-eastern corner of Shinjuku station...but I guess you know these places very well. Japan doesn't have a betting shop like Ladbrokes or William Hill in the UK, but those off-track betting offices are probably something closest to them.

 

[RIDER 00]

Isn't it because a large off-track betting office of the Japan racing association is there right next to Tokyo Dome? There is another one just off the south-eastern corner of Shinjuku station...but I guess you know these places very well. Japan doesn't have a betting shop like Ladbrokes or William Hill in the UK, but those off-track betting offices are probably something closest to them.

Yes, there is a WINS at Korauken so it is easy for people to make bets and want to watch the races during the baseball game. However, I have seen the same phenomenon at other places where there is a huge crowd of people, like at the Kokugikan for a sumo tournament or at a soccer stadium.

Off-site betting locations are so full of riff raff that I never want to stay in one longer than I have to. The one in Shinjuku is a fire trap waiting to happen and I once saw a fight break out there between two punks. An old man had the courage to grab one of them to try and break it up, but he ended up getting his glasses broken.

 

[Ken1988]

Yes, there is a WINS at Korauken so it is easy for people to make bets and want to watch the races during the baseball game. However, I have seen the same phenomenon at other places where there is a huge crowd of people, like at the Kokugikan for a sumo tournament or at a soccer stadium.

Off-site betting locations are so full of riff raff that I never want to stay in one longer than I have to. The one in Shinjuku is a fire trap waiting to happen and I once saw a fight break out there between two punks. An old man had the courage to grab one of them to try and break it up, but he ended up getting his glasses broken.

I remember those days many years ago when that neighborhood of Shinjuku, under the flyover of Koshukaido, was really difficult to walk through. On any race day, a mass of laborers and salarymen gathered, smoking, drinking, spitting on the street, listening to the race broadcasts, talking to the pundits who were roaming roaming around to sell their race tips. I'm glad to see the things changed really as the gambling population diversified, but, yes, the area around a WINS office is still not nice.

The Satsuki Sho race at Nakayama in two weeks...