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When excluding those who only played lottery draws, participation stood at 28%, implying lottery-only players comprised roughly 21% of the adult population.
Online gambling participation over four weeks reached 39% (16% excluding lottery-only players), while in-person gambling participation was 29% (18% excluding lottery-only players).
Top non-lottery activities during the period included scratchcards (13%), betting (10%) and online instant win games (8%).
About The Wisecracker Lightning
Ben Robinson, managing partner at Corfai, argues that the American listing achieved what it was supposed to achieve. The problems came afterwards. “The question was which arm of the K-shaped market Flutter would end up on. We have the answer now. Capital is concentrated in a narrow band of technology names and everything else is being marked on earnings.”
A US listing can improve access to capital without making the underlying business more attractive. London has a capital-markets problem. Gambling has an investment problem. The two overlap, but they are not the same thing.
Frank Fantini, founder and publisher emeritus of Eilers-Fantini, thinks the change began before Covid. “There is a tendency to look at the world as pre-Covid and post-Covid,” he says. “But the decline in gaming began earlier than that with the slowdown in new jurisdictions and new projects.”
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Across some 8,000 pachinko parlours in Japan, machines filled with metallic balls fill expansive spaces, similar to slot machines on a casino floor. Winning balls are tallied and exchanged for non-cash prizes at the parlour, which can then be taken to nearby third-party exchange outlets for cash.
“Pachinko is a huge part of the culture,” says Leckert. She explains the “ease of walking into a pachinko parlour” is irreplaceable.
The sheer scale of pachinko underscores Japan’s complex relationship with gambling. Valued at around $130 billion in 2020, the industry represented roughly 2.5% of Japan’s GDP, highlighting its significant place in the country’s leisure economy.
