About Japanese state-run gambling – motorboat racing-

１．About motorboat racing

There are many casinos and gambling facilities operating in a lot of countries in the world.

However, the Japanese government does not allow casinos.

Instead, Japan has government-run gambling, the most famous of which is horse racing.

There are others too, and boat racing is one of them.

If you have just moved to Japan, knowing little about the country, this motorboat racing may well be an unknown world to you.

Boat racing is a type of gambling where you guess which boat is going to come in what place in a given race.

２．The rules

In boat racing, there are usually 6 boats competing in a single race.

The colors are set as 1- white, 2-black, 3- red, 4- blue, 5- yellow, 6- green respectively.
Those colors are in the same order as ‘pit out’; the white is the inside, and the green is the outside.‘Pit out’ is a term which refers to the area where each racer goes from the waiting point to start point. As a matter of fact boat racing differs from horse racing, or bike racing in that they do not start all together from the start line.
So it’s a system where the racers must pass through the line within a given time limit.

If there are any racers who are past the start line before the big clock shows 0, it is taken as a false start and the betting stubs are scratched for that race. Similarly if there are any boats behind a certain line when the clock shows zero it’s taken as a late start, and that too results in scratched stubs.

After that the race begins, and they compete with each other to decide who comes first place.
The size of the boat racing course is 600m per lap, and the goal is reached on the third lap.

２－１．How to choose boats

As you may already have thought, the performance of a boat is quite crucial as a they resemble F1 cars. In actual fact, a boat racer cannot choose his own boat.
The day before the race is the pre-inspection date for the motorboats. In that time, the motor and the boat are decided by a lottery. In short, it’s luck.
Before the race, they give a ‘demonstration,’ when people see that, they can pick up on the condition of racers and their boats, which can help with the betting of the day.

Regarding the purchasing of boat tickets, the most popular way is to purchase an OMR betting card on site.
Another way is to go to a betting ticket machine on site..
There is one other way. Recently you can purchase betting tickets on the internet with the service called ‘teleport.’

There are several ways of betting: ‘Win’, ‘Place’, ‘Exacta’, ‘Quinella’, ‘Trifecta’, ‘Quinella-Place’.
The most difficult of these is the ‘Trifecta’.
For the Trifecta you have to guess 1st, 2nd, 3rd in order, and this gives you the highest odds.

The easiest one is ‘Win’ and all you need to do is to guess who’s going to come first.

The white racer, who is on the inside has a winning rate of 50%, which is quite high. This means that you have a 50% chance of winning, and you can get the taste for it easily. On the other hand, the odds stay low.

２－２．About the schedule and grades

You cannot go to boat-racing whenever you like, as there are times when they’re being held, and others when they aren’t.

There are 12 races a day during racing season. Times vary from morning through night, and change between different tracks, so be sure to check the schedule.

Each race has a grade. For the higher grades, Only A1 ranked racer can compete.
The higher the grade the race, the bigger the prize money.
There are five grades; ‘SG,’ ‘G1’, ‘G2’, ‘G3’,’Regular.’

３．summary

Having read this article, do you feel that maybe boat racing isn’t so difficult to understand after all?

We hope that this article gives you the impetus to come and see what it’s all about.