Yo dawg, I heard you like casinos.

On the evening of 25 June, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department raided Rizin, not the mixed martial arts association but what is known as a “brick-and-mortar online casino” that was operating in the Kabukicho area of Tokyo.

Let’s start by unraveling what a brick-and-mortar online casino is. First, online casinos are prohibited in Japan, as is partaking in online casinos that operate overseas. That certainly doesn’t stop people with the gambling bug from trying, but there are a lot of challenges, especially for the large elderly population in Japan, such as navigating websites in other languages and setting up dodgy payment systems.

▼ “Crypto-what-now? On Telegram? I haven’t used one of those since ’42!”

So, some rackets have been set up to help facilitate these hurdles. For example, a brick-and-mortar online casino can help set up accounts for their clients and accept cash directly from them to be converted into online currency. Despite being a criminal enterprise, gamblers can get a sense of security in dealing with people directly and even enjoy the social aspect of being among others, though it’s probably still a far cry from The Stardust in the ’70s.

Anyway, Rizin operated secretly and only let in trusted customers by identifying their faces on security cameras and buzzing them in through double iron doors. At the time of the raid, five employees and seven customers with ages ranging from their 20s to 80s were arrested and police say they’ve found data on over 5,000 other people on the roughly 20 computers they seized.

▼ A news report on the bust

Rizin was discovered by authorities during their investigation of Shizuku Ida, a 27-year-old woman charged with the romance fraud of a 29-year-old man worth about 3.7 million yen ($25,000) last year. She was said to have spent about 80 million yen at Rizin. Police also say that Rizin was raking in millions of yen a day, but the investigation is still ongoing. All the employees admitted to the charges against them.

In online comments, many people were confused by both the existence of brick-and-mortar online casinos and why this one decided to call itself Rizin.

“A brick-and-mortar what?”
“The police are just helping the pachinko parlors with this.”
“Even if he gets arrested, he can just use all the money he made to open another one and keep it going for as long as he wants.”
“So, is this related to the fighting league?”
“I don’t really get brick-and-mortar online casinos.”
“I thought about using one but figured my own phone would be safer. Guess I was right.”
“I think Japan should just legalize them and regulate them properly so we don’t lose money to other countries.”

Japan does seem to be heading down that path with an integrated resort and casino already under construction next to the site of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai World Expo. It doesn’t seem outlandish to assume legalized online betting might be in the future as well. Whether this will ultimately be to Japan’s benefit or detriment is the biggest gamble of them all.

Source: NHK, Jiji.com, YouTube/TBS NEWS DIG Powered by JNN
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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