Despite its taboo status, gambling is in fact alive and well in Japan. About $300 billion are wagered in Japan every year on various games including pachinko, lotteries, and races (horses, boats, motorcycles, and bicycles). With the exception of pachinko, these are all run by national and local governments, including betting on J-League soccer through Toto. With the average Japanese person losing $400 per year on gaming (twice the American average), these are big businesses.
As a result, the dream of real casino play remains a dream here, but that doesn’t mean we all can’t pretend! This year, the Sega GiGO game center in Shibuya opened Splead, a casino on the fourth floor that, if it were real, would be a pretty nice place to play.
On the surface, Splead seems like a pretty silly idea. It looks exactly like a real casino, complete with uniformed staff and a professional setup, but lacks the most popular side effect of gambling: Winning money.
When you come for the first time you have to create an account and a membership card. To play casino games, dollar-denominated chips are purchased for the rough equivalent of their real-world values, so ¥1000 = $10 in chips. At a $5 minimum and $100 maximum bet for blackjack, these are actually pretty high stakes.
Due to gambling laws, chips cannot be exchanged into cash when you finish playing. I sat down at a blackjack table with $30 in chips, quickly turned it into $1,200, and then felt immediate disappointment when I couldn’t actually do anything with them besides play more games. It’s possible to keep the chips on your account for the next time you come, but you have to pay storage fees to get them back at the rate of ¥1,000 for $100 in chips. Thus, you have all of the negative points of losing, none of the positive (monetary) points of winning, and have to pay to keep your winnings in the end anyway. Seems crazy? I thought so too, but not anymore.
In the end, Splead differs very little from the average video game where you earn points that have no value outside of the game itself. In this system, players are paying for the added fun of having a real dealer, fellow players, well-mixed drinks, and ambiance. Splead is purely for the entertainment of people who like the fantasy of gambling, but in a more controlled situation. Even the poker tournaments are played using video screens due to the fact that, as one staff member said, “There are many people who wouldn’t know how to deal the cards.”.
The only games that allow you to take your chips out are the video gambling and the amazingly high-tech video horseracing game. Of course, in the end, the chips can only be used to win more chips in the other games on the next floor.
If Japan does eventually legalize gambling, Splead’s model (sans storage fees) would be a good one to follow when it comes to atmosphere, friendly staff, and great service. If run by the government, casinos would most likely be as lame as the ones I’ve been to in Canada and New Caledonia, geared less towards entertaining the guests than to the core business of taking their money. Splead is about having fun and, judging by the decent number of customers there, is doing something right.
Michael is the Editor of JapanTrends.com and Director of the 
