Habitual gambling or running an illegal casino can result in prison time. Punishment: Those caught gambling in Japan will face a fine.

While casinos were banned within Japan, a unique form of gambling culture emerged in it’s place, and more than “nearly half of all leisure time in Japan” is spent in pachinko parlors (more on this below).

Japanese law around lottery means that the entire prize pool for any given lottery is to be less than 50% of total sales, with the rest going to local government organizations and charities. The lottery is also run by the Government, though don’t expect to win the whole pot. This made casino gaming including slots and table games like poker all illegal, in an effort to prevent addiction.Įxceptions include the lottery, pachinko, and certain sports betting it’s legal to bet on horse racing, bicycle racing, powerboat racing, motorbike racing and soccer (as long as this is operated by the Government). Japan is not known for casinos because they were banned by the Criminal Code at the start of the 20th century. An Introduction to Japanese Gambling Culture Gambling History in Japan Here’s an introduction to Japanese gambling culture. With the realization of just how big international casino tourism is (hello Macau tourism dollars), and with COVID moving culture to online entertainment, Japan may just be starting to embrace changes to their century-old gaming laws.

However there are many forms of legal gambling within Japan, including Pachinko, the Lottery, and certain types of sports betting. Gambling has been a taboo subject in Japanese society, and since 1907 most forms of gambling, including casinos, have indeed been illegal. However one country where you haven’t been able to gamble in the past hundred years is Japan. At least, that’s the international perception, but it’s not entirely true.

Gambling is one of the oldest leisure activities in human history, from dicing in the streets of Greece and Rome, to card games in China. Image credit: azkin (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr

Old japanese slot machines