Gambling Addiction in the Land of Pachinko

A Widespread Issue
Family Connection

Gambling is pervasive in Japan. Pachinko and slot machine parlors dot the landscape, and prodigious numbers of publicly operated horse, boat, and bicycle racing venues offer onsite and remote betting. The spread of smartphones, too, has made it possible for people to gamble online anytime and anywhere.

According to a 2017 survey by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, 3.6% of Japanese adults some 3.2 million people are thought to suffer gambling addiction at some point in their life. This is startlingly high compared to rates in other industrialized nations like France and the Netherlands, where it is 1.2% and 1.9%, respectively.

The survey found that over the previous year, 0.8% of Japanese, some 700,000 people, exhibited behavior consistent with gambling addiction, and that addicts on average spent ¥58,000 a month on their affliction. It also named pachinko and slot machines as the most popular forms of wagering.

In December 2016, the Japanese Diet passed integrated resort promotion legislation, the so-called casino law, focusing much-needed public attention on the long-time problem of gambling addiction. Surprisingly, though, the bill was not accompanied by counter measures intended to address compulsive gambling. Japan’s willingness to expand its already robust gambling industry further without taking steps to combat addiction makes it an outlier among developed nations. And it is exactly this indifference to excessive wagering that has enabled the disorder to spread through society.

I have seen firsthand the effects of gambling on families. My grandfather, father, and husband were all compulsive gamblers, and I was also diagnosed with the disorder. People have repeatedly expressed to me their dismay at my inability to avoid the trap that snared my father and grandfather. While I can sympathize with this view, it illustrates an underlying ignorance of the affliction. The reality is that over wagering very often runs in families, and it is by no means unusual to hear of third-generation addicts, such as myself.

Of course, no child of a gambling addict wants to repeat the mistakes of their parents, but many wind up trudging down the same dark road. In my case, I was shocked at realizing that I too had become a compulsive gambler. It filled me with feelings of guilt and disappointment, and all I could do was ask how I had succumbed so easily to the affliction.

To answer that question, I had to look back at my own life experiences. My mother divorced my father early on due to his gambling habit. She returned to her own parents’ home with me in tow, but this was hardly better as my grandfather also spent hours on end at pachinko parlors. His gambling strained relations among family members and finances, and we had to live hand to mouth. Our situation was so desperate that when I entered junior high school my mother could not even afford to buy me a school uniform and backpack like the other students had.

Still, I would go with my grandfather when he played pachinko and was already a fixture at the parlors he frequented by the time I was in kindergarten. Through these outings I learned early on that gambling was fun. I was not the only person influenced by my grandfather’s gambling habit either. When the family gathered at the New Year or other holidays, we would all play the traditional Japanese card games of hanafuda or mahjong.

Secretly, though, we disdained our grandfather’s wagering. I suspect that each of us felt assured that we would never turn out to be a helpless gambler like he was. I certainly know that I did.

When you grow up surrounded by gambling as I did, it comes to be a normal aspect of life. After I met my husband, who also had a penchant for betting, hardly any time passed before we had given ourselves over completely to playing the odds.파칭코