Atsuhiro Ando

## Gambler

* Re:newal
* Hotel

**Atsuhiro Ando**, also known as the Gambler, is a minor character in Tasokare Hotel. He is the first guest following Neko's arrival who ended up at the hotel after nearly suffocating in a landslide.

## Appearance

In Atsuhiro's first appearance, he has a *pachinko* ball for a head, disguising his true identity. He dons a light blue traditional kimono, patterned with light grey zigzags and flower outlines as well as images from different kinds of card games. Atsuhiro also wears a pair of *geta*, a type of traditional Japanese footwear. When his identity is revealed, he appears to be a middle-aged man with black hair and eyes with dark circles.

## Personality

Atsuhiro is addicted to gambling, hence his nickname, "Gambler". He is quite hot-headed and a sore loser based on his behavior during a game of Mahjong with the hotel staff members. While it's difficult for most people to get through to him, Atsuhiro is shown to have a soft spot for his mother, as demonstrated by his love for her cooking and his desperation to make things right with her.

In the real world, Atsuhiro was likely quite arrogant or insensitive towards others due to his love for gambling. Additionally, he was likely quite naive and desperate when it came to regaining the money he lost, as he found himself working for a group of loan sharks who readily exploited and attempted to kill him. Following his stay at the hotel, it is presumed that Atsuhiro became determined to turn over a new leaf and find honest work to repay his mother's kindness.

## History

### Background

Atsuhiro lived together with his mother, who doted on him and cooked his meals. After graduating from a local university, he had trouble finding a job due to the Employment Ice Age in Japan. He was adamant on working for a big company, refusing to compromise with smaller jobs. Following many years of rejection letters, he became a middle-aged man with no work experience, completely living off of his mother.

With no job and no passions, Atsuhiro became addicted to gambling, hoping to easily make a lot of money for himself and his mother. Of course, rather than winning money, he blew it all and accumulated a large debt. With no other funds to turn to, he stole all of the cash in his mother's safe, planning to use it to repay his debt. However, he quickly fell prey to loan sharks and accumulated a large interest on top of his already large debt, thus leaving him no other option but to work for them. The loan sharks kept him under surveillance and exploited him by making him poach illegal corals to sell on the black market.

One day, Atsuhiro escaped from the sharks' poaching site to call his mother. However, black-market lenders caught him in the phone booth. As punishment, they forced him to dig a hole in the side of a mountain, effectively burying him alive.

## Trivia

* Gambler is one of the people who has went to the Tasokare Hotel and made it back to the real world.
* He had a huge debt. In the end, Gambler decided to do forced labour to finish paying off his debt.
* He was forced to do coral poaching, which is illegal
* Gambler "died" when he got trapped under a landslide
* He likes hamburger steak