世論 What Japan Thinks

Central Research Services recently published a survey on a topic I’ve been keen to find a survey on, namely gambling. I’d still like to find a more detailed survey, especially to see if lottery scratch-card addiction is an issue, as the promotion of them on television is extremely irresponsible in my opinion.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of July 2006 (CRS are always slow to report their surveys!) they conducted face-to-face interviewed with 2,000 randomly selected individuals from all over the country. 1,379 successful responses were obtained.

This topic covered legal gambling in Japan, namely horses, boats, cars, lottery, football pools, and of course pachinko and slot machines. Stuff like internet gambling or holidays to Las Vegas were outside of the scope of this survey.

I’ve only indirectly gambled in Japan, due to someone giving me a year-end lottery ticket. I’d love to visit a Pachinko Parlour sometime, but I’m scared to go as I fear I’d either go deaf or inhale far too much second-hand smoke!

However, the Pachinko advertisements on television are often rather interesting. Thanks to Japander for uploading!

Research results

Q1: Have you participated in any legal gambling activities in Japan within the last year? (Sample size=1,379)

	All	Male	Female
Yes	37.2%	46.6%	28.3%
Used to do so, but not within the last year	21.0%	22.2%	20.4%
Never	41.6%	31.2%	51.3%

Looking at the age bands, between the ages of 30 and 59 close to two-thirds of the respondents have gambled.

Next, the 58.2% who have gambling experience were asked the following question.

Q2: Which of the following kinds of gambling have you done? (Sample size=802, multiple answer)

National lottery (Takarakuji)	75.1%
Pachinko, slot machines	39.7%
Horse racing (Kieba)	15.7%
Bicycle racing (Keirin)	3.1%
Boat racing (Kyotei)	2.4%
Football pools (Toto)	0.6%
Car racing	0.6%
Don’t know	0.2%

Looking at the figures by where people lived, the lottery was slightly more popular in cities, but Pachinko was definitely more popular in smaller towns and villages. Horse racing was nearly three times as popular in the cities compared to the countryside, whilst bicycle and boat racing was more popular in the countryside.

Q3: About how much do you spend per gambling session? (Sample size=802)

Up to 3,000 yen	41.4%
Up to 5,000 yen	15.2%
Up to 10,000 yen	27.9%
Up to 30,000 yen	11.1%
Over 30,000 yen	3.2%
Don’t know	1.1%

Men were much more likely to spend more than women.

Q4: Why do (or did) you gamble? (Sample size=802, multiple answer)

Attracted by the prizes	43.5%
Attracted by the elation of winning	30.4%
To cheer myself up	36.5%
To fill time	15.7%
No real reason	4.2%
It’s a habit	5.1%
Other	5.9%

Q5: Why have you never gambled? (Sample size=577, multiple answer)

It’s a waste of money	49.6%
Don’t have the money to spend	27.6%
Chance of winning is low	23.6%
Don’t have time	13.2%
Wouldn’t be able to stop if I tried once	12.3%
Gambling is a bad influence on society	9.9%
Gambling is a man’s game	1.9%

The Other percentage was not reported.