The Best Japanese Gambling Manga: Where the Stakes are Always High!

The gambling industry is currently making over $41.7 billion in revenue, putting it at an all-time high.

If you're someone who loves to gamble, you probably are always looking to media related to your hobby. After all, there's nothing quite like reading about characters doing what you yourself love, and when that hobby is gambling, it's even more fun. The stakes are always high in stories about casino games and betting!

If you haven't looked into reading gambling manga yet, we highly recommend that you do so. Japanese comics and their unique, interesting drawings are the perfect media to capture the emotions and ideologies of those who love to gamble. Read on to learn what manga you'll want to start with as a gambling lover!

Kaiji

Kaiji is one of the most popular gambling manga of all time. This manga is still ongoing despite the fact that it began in 1996. Divided into six parts for easy reading, the latest installment began in 2017! If you're into trying the TV anime out before committing to reading the manga, you're in luck- there's an amazing anime adaptation called Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor.

In any case, Kaiji follows a young man named- you guessed it!- Kaiji. This character really should be looking for a job, but he isn't having any luck of finding one, so he turns his attention elsewhere. He decides to focus his energy on playing cheap pranks on others, becoming intoxicated, and, yes, gambling.

In comes a loan shark, Endo, who tells him all about high-stakes gambling. Immediately interested Kaiji accepts, only to be double-crossed by Endo. He takes him to an underground labor camp and tells him he must work for 15 years to pay off all the gambling debt he's in!

This is obviously not an ideal situation, but Kaiji learns that he has hidden gambling skills. He uses them to get out of many, many situations. You'll need to read the manga to learn what they are, though! We aren't going to spoil you!

Kakegurui

Kakegurui is different from the rest of the series on this list in that it's shojo. Its art style is slightly different than the other manga we're talking about, and its primary target audience is women! However, men can also enjoy these spirited and lively stories with no shame. This is especially the case when Kakegurui is such a high-stakes series!

This series follows students who attend a private school called Hyakkaou, where wealthy and privileged teens must compete in a series of games in which they wager their fortunes against one another. The prize? Elitism in the social hierarchy of the school!

However, this social hierarchy is a bit... extreme, to say the least. The poorest students, who lost their money in the gambling that they partook in, are then seen as slaves to the rich students that won their fortunes.

However, a new student shortly arrives at the school who simply loves gambling for the thrill of it. She wreaks havoc across the school and its hierarchal structure as she continues to defeat the student council in its attempts to eliminate her time and time again.

Legendary Gambler Tetsuya

Moving back into the shonen genre, Legendary Gambler Tetsuya is a classic that ran from 1997 until 2004. It has also been adapted into an anime series that ran in 2000 and 2001, so you can check it out that way, too!

The plot is set in a post-WWII world, so it's also a historical series for all you history buffs out there. People are struggling to survive after the war has ended and the Axis powers have lost miserably. People lack money, and they can't buy food, shelter, and other necessities, so many of them begin to gamble away what money they do have in hopes of striking it big.

The series follows Tetsuya, who is, as you may have guessed, a legendary gambler. He makes his fortune off playing Mahjong, a game in which he defeats his opponents with pretty much zero trouble.

However, that all changes when Tetsuya meets a man who is very skilled at the game and realizes that he still has a lot to learn. This action-packed and heartfelt series is sure to have you rooting for Tetsuya to win at his chosen game against any odds that may be stacked against him.

Akagi

Like Legendary Gambler Tetsuya, Akagi also follows a player of the classic Chinese game Mahjong. This is unsurprising considering the game's popularity in Japan, which persists to this day.

Akagi is also known as 'Akagi: The Genius Who Descended Into Darkness,' which is a much more descriptive title. The series follows a boy called Shigeru Asagi, a teenage boy who beats yakuza (Japanese mafia) members in Mahjong. He doesn't know the rules of the game, though- he just relies on his intuition to beat these dangerous men.

He winds up disappearing, as those who meddle with the yakuza tend to do.

However, six years later, he returns to the game carrying the status of a legend. His ultimate rival is called Washizu. He's one of the wealthiest men in the Japanese underworld who tempts people to bet their lives for great sums of money. The two of them create and play a variety of the game that Akagi calls 'Washizu Mahjong', in which three tiles for every tile type are transparent so that players can see what's underneath them.

Bring Gambling Manga to Life

No matter which of these gambling manga you choose to read, you're sure to be riveted. After all, the characters and plotlines are all high-stakes, all the time!

Now that you know some of the best Japanese gambling manga that you can enjoy, it's time to learn more about gambling and casino games. Head over to the GamblersPick home page and sign up for our newsletter. We'll give you the latest gambling-related news and facts so that you can be as amazing a better as possible in bringing the strategies you learn in manga into the real world.

Good luck out there!