Hideyuki Ohashi pushes for legalised gambling on boxing in Japan!
Earlier today the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo hosted an interesting event, the “Association of Diet Members Supporting the Development of Professional Boxing", which saw notable figures from the Japanese boxing world getting to speak to the Japanese Diet, the national legislature of Japan.
Among the notable talking points from the event, was a suggestions from former fighter-turned-promoter Hideyuki Ohashi, who had been in Las Vegas recently. Ohashi told the attendees that he believed that legalizing sports betting would contribute to the growth of boxing's popularity in Japan, and strongly urged that the current ban on sports betting in the country should be lifted. The view was echoed by Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) Secretary General Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, who also attended the event.
At the moment Japan has very limited legal sports gambling, which prohibits most forms of gambling. What is allowed include exceptions for betting on horse racing, cycling, certain motor sports, Lotteries and Football Pools. Despite being thought of as a gambling game, Pachinko, isn't legally allowed to be gambled on, with a convoluted work around being used for the parlors to be legal.
It appears that Ohhsi is suggesting that Boxing should also be granted an exception to the sports gambling rules, bringing it inline with things like Cycling, Motorbike Racing, Horse Racing, Powerboat racing and Auto racing.
Given the impact of gambling in Boxing in the US, and the long standing links between the sport and Casino’s, this is an interesting suggestion from Ohashi, and could see Japan trying to copy Las Vegas for boxing, putting fights in Casinos, in Japan.
Whilst Japan doesn’t currently have any Casino’s thee has long been plans to build a few, under the idea of creating jobs and boosting tourism, something that boxing well help with long term.
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of this, but it might well be another sign of Ohashi thinking not about the here and now, but about bringing regular super fights to Japan in 2030 and beyond.
Among the notable talking points from the event, was a suggestions from former fighter-turned-promoter Hideyuki Ohashi, who had been in Las Vegas recently. Ohashi told the attendees that he believed that legalizing sports betting would contribute to the growth of boxing's popularity in Japan, and strongly urged that the current ban on sports betting in the country should be lifted. The view was echoed by Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) Secretary General Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, who also attended the event.
At the moment Japan has very limited legal sports gambling, which prohibits most forms of gambling. What is allowed include exceptions for betting on horse racing, cycling, certain motor sports, Lotteries and Football Pools. Despite being thought of as a gambling game, Pachinko, isn't legally allowed to be gambled on, with a convoluted work around being used for the parlors to be legal.
It appears that Ohhsi is suggesting that Boxing should also be granted an exception to the sports gambling rules, bringing it inline with things like Cycling, Motorbike Racing, Horse Racing, Powerboat racing and Auto racing.
Given the impact of gambling in Boxing in the US, and the long standing links between the sport and Casino’s, this is an interesting suggestion from Ohashi, and could see Japan trying to copy Las Vegas for boxing, putting fights in Casinos, in Japan.
Whilst Japan doesn’t currently have any Casino’s thee has long been plans to build a few, under the idea of creating jobs and boosting tourism, something that boxing well help with long term.
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of this, but it might well be another sign of Ohashi thinking not about the here and now, but about bringing regular super fights to Japan in 2030 and beyond.