Some forms of race gambling have been created and developed over the years and decades in Japan. We could say that they are indigenous to Japan because they can’t be experienced outside of Japan. You should learn the following forms of gambling before your visit.
1. Motorcycle Racing (Autorace)
Motorcycle racing for gambling was created in Japan. The most noticeable difference between Autorace and regular motorcycle races is the “simplicity” of the designs of both motorcycles and racecourses.
The motorcycle for Autorace was designed and developed just for Autorace. Its exhaustion is 500cc or 600cc. Racers debut with 500cc and run for their first year before switching to 600cc. It isn’t equipped with brakes, indicators, lights, or cell motors with the aim of pursuing speed. They run at a speed of up to 150 km/h. The handlebar isn’t parallel to the ground so that racers keep tilting them on their left at all times during races. The racecourse design is simply oval and common in all five racecourses.
2. Ban-ei Keiba (Horse Racing in Hokkaido)
Ban-ei Keiba is a form of horserace held at the Obihiro horserace course in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan. Horses weighing around one ton with a jockey on a sulky compete at a race.
You might see a similarity between Ban-ei Keiba and harness racing, often seen in Europe. One of the differences between both is the speed of horses during a race. Horses at Ban-ei Keiba run at a speed much lower than harness racing because the sulky of Ban-ei Keiba is dragged on the sandy course because it doesn’t have wheels. Additionally, the racecourse stretching for two hundred meters is not flat. It has two hills before the goal, and jockeys (drivers) on a sulky whip their horses to go over hills. It’s exciting to walk in the stand at the same pace with horses cheering for the horse you’ve bet!
3. Morning Races and Midnight Races
In Japan, a day begins with the earliest races, called “Morning race,” at 8:15 a.m. at boat racing courses and ends with the latest races, called “Midnight race,” before midnight at bicycle racing (Keirin) and motorcycle racing (Autorace). I guess that races at such early or late hours aren’t carried out for betting in any other country.
While fans can see the morning races in the racing venues, the midnight races can’t be seen in person. Out of consideration for residents around the venues, races at midnight are staged without any fans in stands. In addition, Autorace has introduced a lower-noise muffler for evening and midnight races, which reduces exhaustion noise by up to 90%.
Above are the race gambling you’ll never experience anywhere except in Japan. In the meantime, some people might believe that boat racing and Keirin are unique in Japan. That isn’t true because South Korea has racecourses for both. Japan has 24 racecourses for boat racing and 40 for Keirin, while South Korea has one and three, respectively.
Regarding gambling at midnight, I remember watching greyhound races past midnight at an OTB in Lisboa Hotel of Macau around 2014. I heard that greyhound races in Macau were stopped in 2018 because of a decline in sales affected by thriving casinos. In London, I was excited when I came across a live roulette broadcast on TV at midnight. I hope they are going on :-).