Playback ’15] Some Debtors with Dark Money…Report on the Gorgeous and Dangerous “Dark Casino” Undercover Report

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we revisit the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will introduce a story from 10 years ago in the December 11, 2003 issue, titled “Dark Casino: Undercover shots of a luxurious and dangerous gambling den.

On November 9, 2003, the Yomiuri Giants announced the dismissal of three players for involvement in baseball gambling, and the revelation that the three players had not only been gambling on baseball and betting on mahjong, but had also been frequenting “black market casinos,” which were off limits to the general public, took the world by surprise. What kind of place is a black market casino?　The following is a report by a “FRIDAY” reporter who went undercover (descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles).

Behind the double doors, another world unfolded.

The building has an ordinary white exterior. Opening the heavy doors, I was naturally alarmed. In front of me was another iron door, and the only thing in the narrow entranceway was a surveillance camera hanging from the ceiling. But once the double doors are opened, a completely different world opens up. The red carpet and glittering chandelier are the only things you see in the 100-square-meter room, where bright red flowers in Scandinavian vases are arranged in abundance.

Welcome. What would you like to drink?

A young woman in a suit asked. When I ordered a beer, the woman bowed while showing me the food menu.

She showed me the food menu and bowed. Please have a meal and wait on the sofa next to me.

At the time, it was said that there were about 100 black market casinos in Japan. Some of them offered games such as baccarat, in which more than 100 million yen could be spent in a single day. Of course, gambling is illegal in Japan, except for publicly operated games, and if caught, the store owners would be charged with the crime of “bookmaking” and the customers would be charged with gambling. The proceeds are also a source of funding for organized crime groups. Let’s continue our undercover report.

After a 30-minute wait, we were shown to a table for eight. The customers were silent except for occasional shouts of “Okay! A regular customer who has been coming to the club for 10 years told us, “It’s mainly baccarat.

The main game is baccarat. There are three types of tables, depending on the amount of bets. The first type is called the “big table,” where large customers can bet up to 1 million yen at a time. Next are tables for intermediate players, where bets can be up to 300,000 yen. Beginners can wager up to 100,000 yen. Black market casinos are located in Kabukicho and Roppongi in Tokyo, and in Yokohama and Kawaguchi a little further away, but they do not operate in the same places for a year. They are always on the lookout for police crackdowns and pull out before they are caught.

The more money they lose, the longer they stay.”

According to this customer, many casinos are open 24 hours a day, and alcohol, cigarettes, sandwiches, and other snacks are free. In addition, upper-class customers who spend more than several million yen are treated well. They are served whiskey and other high-class liquors, and even provided with a cab to take them home. The casino is said to be “always crowded with about 20 customers, and it is common to have to wait for two or three people to get in. A regular customer continued, “The more the customers lose, the more they play.

The more the customers are losing money, the longer they stay in the casino to make up for it. Some casinos even provide nutritional drinks for customers who are so tired that they are about to fall asleep. I don’t know much about the customers because they rarely talk to each other, but I don’t think there are many first-time customers. Most of them are regulars. Some of them are celebrities or baseball players who say, ‘I’ve seen you before. They call each other “Mr. President” and don’t interfere with each other. What the restaurant doesn’t like are people who make a living in the black market casinos, called gajiris. They play hardball and leave as soon as they make a profit.

You can come and go as you please. However, there is no end to the horror stories that can be told about the black market, including one in which a customer who was disputing payment was taken to the back of the casino by a two-meter-tall black bouncer and has not been seen since. There are also some customers with black money behind them, as if the debtors are trying to make a quick repayment.

“They bring round chairs to sit behind the customers, and you can feel the tension of the debtors. They are clutching their credit cards and sweating greasily. The black-market money provider is watching the game and saying, ‘All right, go!　Ganbare! The debtor must be desperate because he has no choice but to win and make the money to pay back the debtor. My legs were shaking,” said one of the regulars.

At the tables of customers who bet large sums of money, there is usually a cherrypicker to raise the stakes. It is not uncommon for customers to get so fired up that they end up betting more than 10 million yen in one night. Even so, the restaurant will not let them go home penniless. For every 500,000 yen lost, the casino will return 10,000 to 20,000 yen to make the customer come back again, saying, “Let’s win next time.

The black market casinos were not only illegal entertainment facilities, but also a money collection system for anti-social forces to siphon off customers’ money as they wished.

Although the number of black market casinos has decreased due to the exposé, ……

In April 2004, Kento Momota and Kenichi Taishi, both members of Japan’s badminton team and ranked No. 2 in the world at the time, were reported to have frequented a black market casino in Kinshicho, Tokyo, leading to their withdrawal from the Rio Olympics team. Also in February ’17, Ryotaro Shimizu, Akira Shimizu’s third son, and actor Kaname Endo were suspended from work after they were reported to have frequented a black market casino in Ikebukuro.

It is said that celebrities such as entertainers and athletes have a high affinity with black market casinos because they have money and are tight-lipped about the damage they would suffer if their casino visits were discovered.

By the end of the decade, the number of black market casinos was said to have decreased compared to a period in the past, partly due to police detection. Instead, online casinos began to penetrate society in the latter half of the decade. In 2012, there were 62 cases of online casino gambling, involving 279 people, the largest number ever. It is still fresh in our minds that baseball players and celebrities have been exposed one after another.

In October, a manager and five employees of a black market casino were arrested in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, on suspicion of habitual gambling. The government is strictly enforcing gambling.

While the government is cracking down on gambling, “Japan’s first casino,” which has been on the drawing board for more than 20 years, is finally taking shape. On April 24 of this year, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Osaka Integrated Resort (IR) took place on land adjacent to the Expo site in Yumeshima, Osaka. This facility will include a casino in addition to a hotel resort, conference center, and entertainment facilities. Although many people are still opposed to the project for reasons such as the promotion of gambling addiction, it is scheduled to open in the fall of 1930.

Despite changes in times and forms, it seems that people still cannot get rid of gambling.