horse gambling

While reaching across my body for my bag, a waft of familiar perfume blew in with the breeze from the nearby canal. "You know," she started, "if you wouldn't always drink so much and pass out in the back of the cab, those drivers wouldn't necessarily take advantage of you."
"Morning, my dear," I said, gathering to my feet. "Glad to see you are ready to take the bull by the horns so early." Many of my worries would just flutter away with breeze if junior reporter Junko would show up on time rather than early for work.
"Speaking of beasts of burden," she said, "the Japan Derby finished over one month ago. The Boss asked you for a report on the latest on gambling in Japan and you haven't even lifted a finger." We started walking in the direction of the newsroom.
"Still doing the necessary background research," I assured. Her nose crinkled and her lips pursed on the word "research." I paused and then continued, "I've got a draft of the first part right here." I reached into my inner coat pocket, dusted off the plastic cover, and handed it to her.
While she perused the first few pages, I reached for the morning's first cigarette in hopes of relieving the morning's first headache.
When Jungle Pocket dashed across the finish line last month to claim the 68th Japan Derby from Dantsu Flame by a length and a half, fans clutching winning betting tickets at the Tokyo Racecourse roared their approval from the packed grandstands surrounding the oval track.
While their screams may have been deafening, their wagers only amounted to the equivalent of but a few oats on the paddock floor compared to all the feed being thrown about elsewhere. At the 27 government-sanctioned off-track betting shops scattered across Japan, many times more money changed hands than at the Tokyo track. While not new, off-track wagering, in its ever-increasing varieties, has grown in recent years to account for over 90% of all horse wagering in Japan.
Increasing the availability of off-track wagering is one of the things the racing industry is implementing to fight the recent revenue losses it has experienced across the board. As Japan battles economic recession, interest in horse racing has declined. The industry, though, is determined to ensure that it is not trailing the field at the final turn before the stretch run.
Gambling in Japan is legal only in the form of public lotteries and parimutuel betting. The betting consists of wagers placed on horse, boat, bicycle, and motorcycle racing. Much of the funding that helped Japan carry out its post World War II reconstruction came from taxes generated from these publicly managed gambling operations. But in fiscal 2000, nearly half of all the race operators lost money. As a result, municipal government coffers only received 35 billion yen in revenue. This is about one-tenth of what was delivered in 1991.
Japan's horse racing industry, whose origins go back to Yokohama in the middle of the nineteenth century, can be broken into two types of racing: those races managed by the Japan Racing Association (JRA) and those by the National Association of Racing (NAR). The JRA is the operator of 10 tracks in Japan and its thoroughbred races feature the best horses, carry the greatest prestige, have the largest payouts and receive the widest media coverage. The NAR has more races and horses but are more like mom and pop affairs run at 30 racecourses that range in scale from large events sponsored by local governments to small events sponsored by city governments.
Presently, total annual horse gambling receipts nationwide are three times that of the United States. While this may not sound like a struggling industry, the Nikkei reports that horse racing receipts have dropped 14% since their peak in 1997 to 230 billion yen. The number of spectators at the track over the past 4 years has similarly fallen 20%. The lack of a really popular racehorse and Japan's economic recession are cited as the reasons. To counter this, the industry has begun making moves.
With sales at the Ohi Racecourse in Tokyo plummeting, a waido payoff system, where tickets selecting two of the top three finishers regardless of the order gain payouts, was implemented two years ago. Though the payouts are smaller relative to a ticket that simply picks the winner, the fans liked the idea and sales increased 12% over the year before. This new policy was on the heels of the advent of night racing at the track - a novelty at the time in Japan. A success as well, night racing is now offered at two other tracks in Tokyo and is popular among young working men and women. The movement to attract young colts and fillies to the races didn't stop there.
On any racing Sunday afternoon at the turf and dirt Tokyo Racecourse, the packed grandstands have started to include something other than the traditional standbys of rolled racing sheets, spilled beer, cigarette smoke, and discarded betting tickets: high heels and Louis Vuitton. This is because more and more women are being lured to the track.