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Video game spending is less attractive for a lover than gambling, Japanese survey says, but why?

Casey Baseel Jul 23, 2025
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Gambling regularly tops lists of unattractive behaviors in Japan, so how did one of the country’s most notable hobbies surpass it?

You can’t buy love, but that doesn’t mean there’s no connection between financial matter and matters of the heart. If a relationship is going to progress and two lovers are going to link their lifestyles, one person’s attitude regarding money will eventually start to affect the other, and to get a closer look at the situation Japanese staffing service Biz Hits conducted a survey asking respondents asking what sort of spending habits make a romantic partner less attractive.

The poll collected responses from 505 participants (363 women and 142 men), with 23.3 percent between the ages of 20 and 29, 41.7 percent in their 30s, 23 percent in the 40s, 11.7 percent 50 or older, and 0.4 percent under 20.

When asked if a romantic partner’s spending and saving habits influence how they feel about a relationship, 63.7 percent said they have a major effect, and another 31.9 percent say they have a moderate one. Just 3.8 percent said the effect is only minor, and a negligible 0.6 percent said they don’t affect the atmosphere of a relationship at all.

So what kind of spending makes someone look unattractive? The number-one response, chosen by 13.3 percent of respondents as their biggest turnoff, is “spending money on video games.”

That might be kind of surprising, since while there are still niche genres and specific titles, video games in general have become a pretty mainstream entertainment option in Japan nowadays. Even more startling is that respondents who said spending money on video games makes a romantic partner unattractive outnumbered those who had that complaint about gambling, which was the number-two response, from 9.1 percent of survey participants, followed by a non-specific “spending beyond their means” (6.7 percent).

Gambling has long ranked at the top of survey results in Japan for behavior of any kind that’s considered unappealing in a prospective romantic partner, not just within the field of spending habits. So how video game spending end up at the top of this list, and by a considerable margin? Possibly because of changes in recent years within the video gaming and gambling industries in Japan.

Starting with gambling, Japan has venues where you can bet on horse, bicycle, motorcycle, and motorboat racing. However, in terms of the number of gambling facilities, pachinko is by far the most common type, and also the one most people have the easiest geographic access to. Yet while it’s still relatively easy to find pachinko parlors, they’re having a harder and harder time pulling customers in, and it’s especially losing popularity among younger demographics, so it’s becoming less likely to be on the deal-breaker radar than it used to be.

Meanwhile, video games are no longer limited to their original format in which you paid a set price for a complete game. The hobby now includes a vast array of free-to-play games, including many such mobile game titles. As anyone who’s dipped their toes into that model can attest, though, free-to-play games are generally designed in such a way that you have to spend money to access to the actually enjoyable parts of their content, and that content is usually unlocked through randomized gacha/loot box mechanics. In other words, “spending money on video games” now also encompasses paying money for a non-guaranteed return, with the option to keep paying to try again if the player is unhappy with the initial result…which are all descriptions that fit gambling too.

▼ “Argghhhhh! I can’t believe I got stuck with the SS-Y rank Shampoo Girl! I was sure I was gonna get the SS-Z Pantene-chan this time!”

It’s true that there are differences between gacha games and gambling, the most important being that with gacha games the player is at least guaranteed to receive something in exchange for their payment, even if it’s in-game content that’s neither useful nor desirable. However, that might make such spending even harder for a romantic partner to accept. Without specific knowledge of a certain game, it’s difficult for non-fans to grasp why a gacha player would be dissatisfied with a particular drop, or why they’d feel like the expense/risk is worth it to chase after a rare one. At least with traditional gambling, it’s pretty easy to grasp the desire (money), and so see why a losing bet wouldn’t be a satisfying finish to a session, even if you don’t agree with the choice to keep at it.

Biz Hits didn’t numerically break the responses down by gender, but a selection of respondent comments suggests that game spending was seen as unattractive by both men and women, with a woman in her 20s recalling “I loaned my boyfriend money because he said he was having trouble making ends meet, but then he spent it on in-game purchases,” while a 30-something man said “I felt like maybe I needed to rethink things a little when I saw my girlfriend spending more than 10,000 yen [US$69] at one time on in-game purchases.”

▼ It’s an often-forgotten corollary that what’s not good for the goose often isn’t all that great for the gander either.

Now, as is always the case with surveys like this, it’s important to remember that ultimately what matters is whether the two people in the relationship see eye-to-eye and can accept each other’s lifestyle choices. It’s also worth pointing out that the survey respondents weren’t necessarily calling for their romantic partners to rein in spending across the board, with their number-five, six and seven complaints being a partner who’s too insistent on splitting all costs 50/50, someone who gives low-priced presents, and someone who’s overly focused on saving money and cutting expenses. Still, if you’re playing the percentages while looking for love, it might be best to keep your game spending on the moderate side, or maybe to play up your old-school gamer ethos by telling your date that you’re only into titles with extra content that can be unlocked through in-game progression and challenges.

Source: PR Times
Related: Biz Hits
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3)
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