Badminton ace Momota banned from competition indefinitely over illegal gambling

It's really too bad. It is not like they were gambling on badminton and throwing matches to win money.

On one hand am impressed (sort of) by the NBA for sticking to their guns and banning Momota despite his strong Olympic medal chances, on the other am appalled by the severity of the sanction.

Really fell sorry for the young guy(s). People do make mistakes.

Not to Korea. You have to be fluentvin Korean, English or Chinese. Don't encourage Japanese to go Korean Casinos. games differ. big husky bouncer will break your arms and throw you out. A majority of Koreans hate Japanese.

Korean casinos are for Chinese billionaires.

bullfighter

Percentage of gamblers here seems very small in comparison with those who don't gamble. Some statistics say more people lately don't go to gamble because of probably depopulation or not interested. Many such places are especially banckrupted in local areas. It seems majority prefer to save money rather than to gamble.

People found guilty of gambling... face jail terms of up to FIVE YEARS [but] publicly-operated gambling... is NOT ILLEGAL

Interesting contradiction...

Momota dyed his highlighted hair black as an act of contrition as he appeared in front of the cameras to apologise for his actions.

not enough, should be Monk stye "Marubozu !"

People found guilty of gambling in Japan can face jail terms of up to five years.

That's the absolute maximum penalty for the most serious gambling offence you could ever imagine. The minimum penalty for a first time offender is a petty fine from 1000 to 10,000 yen.

If you consider the minimum penalty to be a baseline of how seriously society condemns a particular crime, disrupting a funeral, profaning a house of worship or even speeding and illegal parking are all much more serious crimes in Japan.

Good. And good on the NBA here for sticking to their guns (and proving me wrong). I thought for sure they'd let him play since he had a shot at a medal, and would just stick it all on the other guy whilst 'sternly warning' Momota.

Now the boy has learned, and hopefully others will, too.

They should have just gone to Korea. There is a perfectly nice casino in Seoul for them to enjoy, and the chances of getting ripped off are much smaller.

To be honest, the punishment seems way out of proportion to the crime. They weren't playing with embezzled money, or spending their parents' retirement savings. Just a couple of lads out for some fun of an evening.

Future Casino business seems never welcome to Japan as people hate gamblings

Duh....

Where are you getting your information? Japanese might not be the punters Chinese or Brits are, but there is no shortage of legal gambling in Japan: horse, bicycle, and boat races. Pachinko is small stakes gambling although it is not legally classified as such. There is also a national legal lottery as well as the illicit casinos that these sports figures were going to.

Good. And good on the NBA here for sticking to their guns (and proving me wrong). I thought for sure they'd let him play since he had a shot at a medal, and would just stick it all on the other guy whilst 'sternly warning' Momota.

Now the boy has learned, and hopefully others will, too.

Absolutely pathetic. So what if a couple of young guys go to an illegal casino and lose their own money. This is a great example of the many contradictions in Japan. Two hugely successful badminton stars are deprived of their rightful journey to the Olympics because of an illegal casino. Meanwhile every single city in the country is inundated with strip clubs, soaplands, pillow cafes, you-name-it. Yet everyone goes mental over a couple of mates blowing their money at blackjack!

Try living in a city riddled with drug addiction and drug gang crime like I have. Where people get stabbed to death for an iPhone. Or shot dead for walking in the wrong postcode. Yet we get lectured about a couple of sporting stars who went to an illegal casino?

with Japanese badminton chief Kinji Zeniya breaking down in tears on television

Get a life my friend.

JBA is giving chance to him to rehabilitate. Stay away from gamble addicted friend,

Future Casino business seems never welcome to Japan as people hate gamblings.