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A comment on On the Trail of the 'Johatsu,' Japan's 'Evaporated People'. Parent comment

Re:On the Trail of the 'Johatsu,' Japan's 'Evaporated People' by mortenjorck on Tuesday May 16, 2023 @11:58PM (#35971086)
That’s astounding. For comparison, gambling is 0.2% of GDP in the US (60.4 billion [1] / 25.46 trillion [2]). And I thought we had a gambling problem here.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1332999/gross-gaming-rev... [2] https://www.statista.com/topics/772/gdp/#topicOverview

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Re:On the Trail of the 'Johatsu,' Japan's 'Evaporated People' by makeitdouble on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @12:28AM (#35971252)
Funny thing is, officially pachinko is not gambling, people just happen to exchange the gained goods for money at unmarked counters afterwards, wink wink nudge style.

I'd argue micropayment games should also fall into that grey area, same as the trading cards markets.

Of course many players (pachinko included) don't see it as gambling and more as a very expensive hobby, in that they effectively expect no return on the money.

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Re:On the Trail of the 'Johatsu,' Japan's 'Evaporated People' by kmeisthax on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @02:28AM (#35971910)
Australia has everyone else beat with something like 80% of the adult population gambling[0].

[0] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6313083.stm

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Re:On the Trail of the 'Johatsu,' Japan's 'Evaporated People' by peoplefromibiza on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @06:38AM (#35973489)
that's only the legal side of it

US players gamble $511bn per year with unlicensed operators, report finds

https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/us-players-gamb...

BTW pachinko is officially not gambling, it shouldn't be compared with the money spent in Casinos. It is more like a lottery where the price is tokens, not money.

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