Despite being quite influenced by the West during the last 50-60 years, Japan still remains a VERY unique country with its extremely unique laws and customs. For example, despite the fact that only 0.7% of Japan’s population identifies as Christian, Christmas remains an important holiday for family bonding and romantic get-togethers… Which is often celebrated with the consumption of copious amounts of KFC. But Japan’s weirdness goes way beyond fun anecdotes like this – they’re an entirely different market altogether. For example, when videogames are released, they often have different release dates for North America & Australia, Europe and Japan, and that doesn’t just apply to the games that are being manufactured there. And, of course, numerous laws are radically different from those found in the West – the age of consent is only 13, firearms are completely forbidden except for soldiers and police officers, the military is abolished safe for a defense force meant to protect the country in case of an invasion, and, most importantly for us, most forms of gambling are completely forbidden. There’s a lottery, and as I’ve written before people like to cheat the system by playing pachinko for real money, but casinos (online or offline), betting on most sports, bingo and other similar activities that most Europeans take for granted are simply not available.

There are numerous theories about why gambling is illegal, but we’re not here to talk about that. The more important question we should be asking is whether there’s a chance that gambling (be it physical, online or both) can ever be made legal according to the country’s criminal code. And I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it’s not like nobody wants to legalize gambling – it’s a lucrative market, and the government knows that they can reign in some serious cash through taxes. They’re already seeing the benefits of gambling thanks to things like sports betting and lotto, and legalizing gambling in general will at the very least cut off the middle man during pachinko transactions, bringing in a TON of lost profits directly to the government, without even counting all of the new markets that will open up with land and online casinos. As a matter of fact, as early as 2015 a legislature that would legalize gambling was brought to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, but this is where the bad news comes into play, as the bill was ultimately rejected. It wasn’t out of any malice, necessarily, it was just that legalizing gambling wasn’t the Party’s priority during that particular session. An extra session will be scheduled to discuss legalizing gambling in particular, but as of the time of this writing that session hasn’t happened yet – all things considered, it might not happen any time soon, either.

But there is hope! Once the session happens, there’s actually a very good chance that gambling might finally be legalized in Japan. I, at the very least, believe that it’s an inevitability within the next 5-10 years, as there are just way too many arguments in favor of a legalization for it not to happen. Sadly, us Westerners can do little but keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

As you can imagine, economics is everywhere nowadays. We live in a capital based society, so understanding one’s market – cost of production, supply, pricing and all the dynamics is vital not just for businesses (and even individuals) but even more so – for governments. So understandably, a lot of effort and resources are put into research so that legislations passed can fairly and realistically reflect on the present economic situation and react and adapt to it in the best possible way to the benefit of all involved.

Today we will cover (in short – the full research paper is 144 pages, so if you are interested and have the time you are welcome to read it) the analysis of use of promotions in online and land-based gambling. The report was prepared by one of the largest economics consultancies in Europe – Frontier Economics, for HM Revenues & Customs agency. The aim is to understand how the different perks, used by operators, would be affected by the introduction to tax on those. Bookies in the UK just had a breather after the budget for the year was recently announced and was less bad for them than expected.

Let’s look at the types of promotions first. The most commonly used options are

• Buy one get one free – free bets given if the user purchases tickets/entry for a given game;
• Matched bets/deposits – a percentage by which the minimum deposit is multiplied;
• Free bets/plays – similar to this Landmark bingo review, free bonus funds for players to use on the site prior to depositing;
• Cashbacks – a percentage of losses on the site recovered in bonus funds;
• Loyalty schemes – put in place perks and freebies for returning customers;
• Promotional offers by calendar – offers valid for a specific event or/and calendar date;

There are conditions to those attached such as wagering and other requirements. The abundance of offers, especially when it comes to online play, has created a whole niche of specialist websites, such as www.bingowebsites.net that help players navigate through the hundreds of options. Statistics show that on average, the operators return around 10-30% of their gross winnings in bonuses.

The aim of all the above is to not only acquire clients but also around their retention, reward and continuous active state. So different types of promotions will support different strategies – as a simple example – freebies are targeting the acquisition of new clients and loyalty schemes – keeping returning customers happy and active. The value of the regular players’ rewards is usually estimated based on the expected value they will bring to the operator over their lifetime as site members.

It is interesting to know that the research revealed that freeplay and welcome bonus top-ups are the main and most important reason for first-time customers to choose one site over another. Gambling companies questioned over the course of the study are all of the opinion that most of their customers gamble for fun and so promotions are seen as extra opportunities to prolong their games and not that much as additional chances to win. So the average players don’t expect the odds to turn in their favour just because a bonus is bigger. The size of the jackpot offer is also very determinant of user behaviour. That does not concern poker as this game is seen as one that requires skill, so it less up to chance.

One of the main points of the research, on top of revelling some fascinating insights from the gambling industry, was investigating the link between different gambling entities. So (as a rough example) how the price of roulette raising will affect the use of bingo games? The below graph is a visual representation of such relation:

Factors such as the log of monthly gambling price, monthly stakes, months/weeks/days with special events (sports etc) occur, GDP, unemployment rate, number of weekends in a month etc. were taken to determine the correlation between forms of gambling.

Well that is all for now, I hope you have enjoyed this short snap from the actual research and will be back soon for more interesting and important news, analysis and facts from the world of gambling and law.

The East and the West are very, very different in numerous regards, be they cultural, linguistical, biological or others. It’s really far easier to count the similarities between them than it is to list the numerous differences. The one we’re most interested in currently, though, relates to gambling. As some of you may know already, especially if you indulge in popular cultures with a heavy Japanese presence, such as videogames and anime, gambling is very illegal in Japan. The process of how we got up to this point is complicated and not really relevant, so I’ll skip it and just get to the point – any game where you can bet money and expect real money in return is completely illegal. You can, however, earn various rewards from games, but the catch is that you can only earn those rewards from skill-based games. If you’ve been to an arcade in the past 5 years, you might have noticed that some arcade machines give tickets the better you do at them. For example, in a shooting game you might get a ticket for each person you shoot before you get killed, and those tickets can be exchanged for prices. You can’t, however, win tickets from, say, a slot machine.

The Japanese, however, would very much like a slice of the gambling pie, so through numerous (and I do mean numerous) loopholes in the law they managed to get it. Enter Pachinko machines. Their closest equivalent is the videogame Peggle, where you need to drop a ball from the top of the screen and have it jump around, hitting various obstacles along the way until it drops into an appropriate slot at the bottom. While there is some skill involved into precisely where and how you’ll drop the ball, for the most part it’s very much a luck-based game. Once the ball hits the bottom, you get a certain number of tickets depending on exactly where it landed, and you can exchange those tickets for prices which you can later sell in a pawn shop (typically located suspiciously close to the arcade). It is, by far, one of the biggest gaming businesses in Japan, to the point where several gigantic developers, such as Konami and SNK, have completely quit developing videogames and focused entirely on their pachinko divisions. Their success completely outmatches anything that the West has to offer.

What’s the secret? I have reasons to believe that it is precisely the skill-based element involved in the games. If you look at Western slots, you’ll notice that the most popular ones are almost always those with a certain amount of interactivity in them. Unfortunately, Western laws prohibit skill-based gambling in numerous countries and states. Certain movements have been started to lift the ban, but at this rate it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing any big slots with a real skill involvement before the next decade. At this rate, we can do little else but wait and hope that we’ll soon be able to enjoy our own Pachinko action, Western-style.

When it comes to mobile gambling, there is one thing that usually comes to everyone’s mind: safety. And so it should be, since our personal and banking details are important and should be secure at all times. This is why I want to share with you few extra safety measures that you should take to ensure that your transactions to and from online casinos go as smoothly and safely as they should. So, let’s get started.

I probably don’t have to remind you Brits that you can only play at licensed casino sites, that are approved by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. The same thing goes for all countries that have adopted their own gambling legislation – always make sure that the operator you choose is allowed to operate in your jurisdiction in the first place, before checking out their mobile app. To be on the safe side, you can choose one from the list of reputable mobile casinos by mobileonlinecasinos.co.uk. which are sure to be licensed, regulated and safe to play at.

Another important aspect to consider is whether or not the casino site offers the so-called ‘anonymous’ banking methods. Of course, they are not actually anonymous, but you can use them as a buffer between yourself and the casino site. However, keep in mind that I am not referring to Bitcoin, as they are not accepted in the UK. I am talking about payment providers such as PayPal, that can provide you with fast, safe and most of the time free transactions to and from gambling sites. This is indeed a very comfortable and safe method to handle your funds, but make sure that the casino you chose offers it as a payment method on their mobile platform.

Something that you should never do is save any kind of passwords on your device. I know, it’s a lot easier and more comfortable to simply log in with one click, but when it comes to safety, this is a huge no-no. The first and biggest danger is that your device might get lost or stolen, and your details – and funds, could fall in the wrong hands and nobody wants that, right? Furthermore, I would advise you not to save any type of log-in information, for the same reason.

Always be on the lookout for prying eyes, because while you are watching your phone, somebody else could be watching it, too. So try to never make banking transactions on public transportation or in public places, as someone could see your log-in or banking details and that could really be a problem. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I would also avoid such sensitive information to be transmitted through open, unsafe Wi-Fi connections, as anyone could have access to it, if they wanted to. So, make sure you take all these precautions and you can safely enjoy your mobile casino experience.