KEIRIN Telephone Voting Membership: Agreement, Funding and Payouts

Who can sign up: eligibility and disqualification criteria

Telephone voting is for individuals. The agreement says plainly that it covers the person using the service, excluding corporations¹. So a company, a club or a group cannot hold a telephone voting membership, even if it has a bank account. If you want to bet as a business, this is not the route.

Beyond being an individual, there is a list of people who cannot become subscribers. It includes adult wards, persons under assistance and bankrupts. It also includes anyone who has been punished with a fine or a heavier penalty for violating the Bicycle Racing Act, and anyone likely to commit collective or habitual violent unlawful acts⁴.

There are also people excluded because of their position in the sport. Government officials and officials of the implementers concerned with keirin cannot join, and neither can JKA officers, employees or keirin riders. People engaged in ticket sales under this agreement are excluded too⁴.

The last ground is personal rather than professional. If your daily or social life is disrupted, or may be disrupted, by buying tickets, you cannot become a subscriber. The same applies where the disruption falls on your family⁶.

If any of these apply to you, the application will not go through. If one starts to apply after you have joined, the agreement can be terminated.

The two bank accounts you need in your own name

This is the part that trips people up, so it is worth reading before you apply. Telephone voting does not run off a credit card or a wallet balance. It runs off two ordinary deposit accounts at the designated bank, and both must be in your own name².

The first is the voting account. This is where your betting money sits and where payouts land. The second is the transfer account, which exists so you can get money out of the voting account. You must open both by the date the Association specifies⁷.

The two accounts do different jobs, and the separation is deliberate. The voting account is locked to this settlement only. You cannot designate it as the account for any other automatic transfer³. That keeps betting money apart from the rest of your banking.

When you want your money, you do not withdraw from the voting account directly. You request a transfer from the voting account to the transfer account through the telephone voting system's dedicated answer service, then take the money out of the transfer account⁸. It is a two step process, and it is the only way funds leave.

If you already bank with the designated institution, you still need to set up the accounts in the required form. If you do not, you will need to open them. Either way, the accounts have to be in your name, not a spouse's, not a parent's, not a company's.

How to place a bet: subscriber number, PIN and ticket details

Once you are set up, betting is done by phone. You call the number the Association designates, then give your subscriber number and PIN². That identifies you and unlocks your account.

After that you state the details of the bet in a set order. First the velodrome number, then the race number, then the type of betting method, then the combination number for the bracket or finish order, then the number of tickets³. Tickets are counted in units of JPY 100⁶.

So a single call carries a fair amount of information. It helps to have the race and your combination written down before you dial, because you are reading numbers into a phone rather than tapping a screen.

One thing to keep straight: the PIN for telephone voting is not the same as an internet voting password. They are separate credentials⁹. If you use both services, do not assume one works for the other.

If you also bet through the KEIRIN.JP site, the flow there is different. You enter your PIN and press the vote button, and the bet is placed, moving you to a vote result screen¹⁰. That is the online path, not the phone path, but the confirmation step is the same idea: nothing is placed until you confirm.

Limits: JPY 9,990,000 a day and JPY 99,900 per bet

There are hard ceilings, and they are generous but real. A single bet can be up to JPY 99,900⁴. That is the cap per bet, not per race or per day.

Across a day, you can buy up to JPY 9,990,000 of tickets⁶. You also cannot exceed 3,000 bets in a day³. Both limits apply per subscriber, so they are the same whether you are on the phone or online.

There is also a limit on how much you can put through in one application. A single application can carry up to 25 items and 999 bets. On PC internet voting, that rises to 50 items and 999 bets⁴. If you are planning a large spread, you may need more than one application.

These are ceilings, not targets. They exist so the system has a defined outer edge, and they apply to everyone with an account.

Betting hours and available meetings, including night and Midnight Keirin

Telephone voting is not limited to afternoon race meetings. Night races and Midnight Keirin can also be bought⁴. That matters if you work during the day, because the meetings you can reach by phone include the ones that run into the evening and late at night.

Deposits into the system have their own hours, and they stretch to match the meetings. Net banking deposits are accepted from 7:00 to 17:00 on a normal day. During night meetings that extends to 21:00, and during Midnight meetings to 23:50⁴.

There is also a previous day sales window. When tickets are sold the day before, deposits run to 23:50 and then again from 0:10 to 7:00 the next morning⁴. So if you want to fund an account for a race the following day, there is an overnight window rather than a dead period.

The practical point is to check the meeting type before you plan your deposit. A normal afternoon meeting closes deposits at 17:00. A Midnight meeting gives you until 23:50. If you leave it late on an ordinary day, you will miss the window.

Payouts, refunds and the 60-day objection deadline

Payouts and refunds run through the same account structure. Money comes back into your voting account, and you move it to your transfer account when you want to take it out⁸. There is no separate payout wallet to manage.

If something goes wrong with a purchase payment, a payout or a refund, there is a deadline for raising it. Objections can be made only within 60 days from the day of the telephone vote in question¹. After that window closes, the Association will not take the objection³.

Sixty days is longer than most people expect, which is exactly why it is easy to sit on a problem. If a payout looks wrong, or a refund never arrived, the clock is already running from the day you placed the vote. Do not wait for a statement to prompt you.

The same 60-day limit appears across the agreement versions tied to the different designated banks, so it is not a quirk of one bank's terms¹². It is a single rule for the scheme.

What happens if you stop using it

An account does not sit idle forever. If you complete no purchase application for one continuous year, the agreement is terminated without notice⁴. Time spent under a suspension does not count toward that year⁴.

Termination can also happen for other reasons. It applies if:

• the application was false
• procedures were not completed by the designated date
• you fall under an ineligibility item
• an act violating the Bicycle Racing Act occurred
• the voting account was closed⁷

If you want to stop for a while without losing the account, the suspension route is the one to look at. If you simply drift away for a year, the account goes.

If a family member asks for your account to be suspended

Relatives living with a subscriber, and people specially approved by the Association, can apply in writing to have that subscriber's telephone voting suspended⁵. The application has to be on the form the Association sets, with the documents it requires⁵.

If that happens, you are not cut off from the process entirely. You may submit an opinion within 30 days of the notice¹². The suspension is lifted only if the Association finds sufficient reason.

If the suspension stands, the lock lasts. In principle you cannot apply to lift it until the end of the fiscal year following the date the suspension took effect⁴. That is a long window, so it is worth taking the 30-day opinion period seriously if you disagree.

This is a family-initiated route, separate from anything you choose yourself. It exists so people close to a subscriber can act when they are worried.

When the current agreement took effect

The telephone voting agreement in force now is dated May 1, 2026³. It is implemented by the Association under each implementer's bicycle racing implementation ordinance³.

If you joined under an earlier version, the current terms are the ones that govern your account. The eligibility list, the account requirements, the limits and the 60-day objection window all sit in this version.