Reports SPORTS-BETTING ASIA - PART 1
JAPAN
Gambling in Japan is in general banned by the Criminal Code Chapter 23 with some exceptions including four authorised public sports, the lottery and Toto. Te code states fines of ¥500,000 maximum
for anyone found gambling and up to three years imprisonment for habitual gamblers. Only domestic sports can be wagered on legally offline in Japan and soccer betting is available pari-mutuel style via J-League Soccer Pools (Soccer Toto). Sports betting has been legal since 1998 and
was approved to help raise funds for sport promotions in the country. Tis now applies only to betting on professional Japanese soccer (basically J1, J2, Emperors Cup and Nabisco Cup) and wagers are made through Soccer Toto. Tere are many versions of sport Toto now
available such as Toto, Mini Toto, Toto Goal 3 and Toto Goal 2. All other forms of sport Toto come under the banner BIG which was launched in 2006 and is basically a lottery where the computer generates selections at random and offers games such as BIG1000 and MiniBIG. Te sports related lotteries run under the Toto
banner are run by the National Agency for Advancement of Sports and Health. When it was launched in 2001 the Toto was closer to a betting game than a lottery and players chose which J- League teams would win in certain sets of games. Total sales for 2014 were ¥110.7bn. Funds from the Toto go to subsidise projects to
promote sports. Te division is 50 percent of sales as prize payments, two thirds in subsidies and one third to the national treasury. Players have to be 19 years old plus and there are no taxes on winnings. Te games include: Soccer Toto – involves picking home, draw or
away in listed football matches. Tere are 13 Japanese soccer matches listed on the card. Tickets cost ¥100 and 50 percent of this goes into the prize pool.
P46 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM Mini Toto – works similar to Soccer Toto but
there are only nine matches to choose from. Tickets cost ¥100 and 50 percent goes into prize pool. Winning tickets can pay out around ¥70,000-¥80,000. Toto Goal 3 – Tis involves three Japanese
soccer matches and players select 0,1,2 or 3 (accounts for three plus) goals for all six teams. Tickets again are ¥100 with half to prize pool. Toto Goal 2 – works the same at Tote Goal 3
bar there are only two matches and four teams. Tickets same price and division is the same. J-League Toto is accessible via a debit card
purchase, an ATM machine or via convenience stores. Online sales are available on the Toto website or with Toto Rakuten or Yahoo!Toto. Revenue at the J-League organisation grew by six percent last year to ¥12.3bn in 2014.
Meanwhile there are four public sports that
can also be bet on. Tese are allowed by special laws and regulated by local governments. In 2010 these generated ¥4.3 trillion in gambling receipts. Te public sports are: Horse Racing (Keiba)Tere are a total of 25
racecourses in Japan and two main organisations. Te Japan Racing Association (JRA) via the federal government, operates all major horse racing in Japan of which there are
10 tracks. Tokyo, Nakayama, Kyoto and Hanshin are known as the ‘big four’ of the 10 racecourses and with Chukyo most races are held at these five tracks. Te others are in Sapporo, Hakodate, Fukushima, Nigata and Kokura. Bets off track can be made via OTB locations called WINS betting facilities of which there are 43 locations. Tere are races for around 288 days a year and in 2014 some 3,451 races were held. Total pari- mutuel revenues in 2014 were ¥2.49 trillion of which ¥2.40trillion was off course and ¥92bn was on course. Average turnover per day is ¥8.6bn with around six million visitors. Meanwhile local governments run non-JRA
tracks through the country although the quality of racing is said to be poor and was developed mostly for entertainment. Tere are 14 local governments which conduct horse racing and there are a total of 17 racecourses. Two of JRA racecourses (Sapporo and Chukyo) are also used by local government racing. Around 15,500 races are held each year over 1,400 days of racing. Attendance is around 3.2 million per year and total turnover in 2014 was ¥375.2bn. Tere are about 80 plus OTB facilities for local government horse racings. Boat Racing (Kyotei) has been around since
1952 and is a government sponsored motorboat event introduced initially in the US. Tere are
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