Online gambler "very sorry" for squandering $358,000 worth of COVID relief he got thanks to a clerical error

Tokyo — A once-placid fishing town of 3,000 on the Sea of Japan is in turmoil — thrust into national headlines by a fiscal error of pandemic proportions. Abu, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, is suing one of its residents for allegedly squandering well over a quarter of a million dollars in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds that he never should have had.

The man was supposed to have received $773 in pandemic relief, but thanks to a clerical mistake he inadvertently ended up with the entire amount intended for distribution to hundreds of low-income households in his district — a total of $358,000.