Why now?” Why it took a year for Rakuten’s Eito Asamura to be sent to prison and his true face as an “unparalleled gambler.

Teaching a junior player how to race boats

On March 4, the Miyagi Prefectural Police filed charges against Rakuten’s Eito Asamura, 35, and three other team members for gambling at an online casino via smartphone.

The case against Asamura was prompted by the statement of former Giants player Rui Okoye (28), who was sent to prosecution last year for using an online casino.

In the process of interviewing people involved in the investigation, it was reported that Okoye stated, “I was triggered (to gamble) by a senior Rakuten player playing at an online casino (around 2021, when Okoye was a member of Rakuten). The search for the culprit began immediately in baseball circles, and Asamura’s name soon surfaced.

Asamura’s love of gambling was well known from his days at Seibu. A source who knew Asamura at the time said, “He was especially fond of boat races.

He was especially fond of boat races. He used to tell his juniors how much he enjoyed it behind the bench. Even during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when there were restrictions on activities due to the COVID-19 crisis, Asamura, a member of the Samurai Japan team, was “instructing” his juniors on boat racing on and off the field while looking at his phone. Why didn’t he just let it end up as public gambling? ……

It would be outrageous if he had been involved in online casinos in the same vein as horse and boat racing. However, what is interesting is the timing of the arrest.

Why were Asamura and the other three named now, more than a year after the online casino issue was first discussed in the baseball world?

On the afternoon of March 4, Rakuten’s public relations department released a statement regarding “persons affiliated with the baseball team.

In February last year, we called for voluntary reporting of online casino use within the baseball team, and we received a voluntary report from one of the persons concerned.

The person in question deeply regrets that he used online casinos out of curiosity, without being aware of their illegality, and has accepted the payment of the fine agreed upon by the 12 teams without objection.

A reporter from the society section of a national newspaper noted as follows.

The amount of money Asamura spent on online casinos was considerably larger than that of other players, and it took a lot of time to get the information back from the police. In addition, the police did not want to continue the investigation beyond the current fiscal year, so they decided to send Asamura to prosecutors in March.

Asamura has already completed his “purification,” as evidenced by the fact that he started at No. 4 in the first-team game in Shizuoka on March 4, the incident is considered “over” within the baseball team. He is said to be the team’s main gun. As the team’s main gun, he hopes to clear his name this year.