It's the year 2020, and just as the entire nation of Japan finishes playing host to the Tokyo Olympic games, the economy suddenly spirals downward at breakneck speed. Inflation soars, public safety crumbles, and the federal government finds itself on the verge of insolvency, rapidly transforming the national economy into one big underground labor camp.
Kaiji is the epitome of a life turned ring. Treated like dirt, he makes do with a salary handed to him in a thin envelope. Struggling to decide whether he should spend his money on a beer, now rising to 1,000 yen per can, he is gradually filling with rage.

Then he discovers that his former underground labor camp boss, Otsuki, who made a name for himself through an illegal gambling ring, has now risen to President of the powerful Teiai conglomerate. Otsuki induces Kaiji to take part in the "Tower of Babel," a game of luck invented as a diversion for cash-flush old tycoons, who give hope to the weak and destitute with a chance to get rich overnight.

The wheels of fortune start to turn again for a born gambler like Kaiji. But is the future that awaits him to become a paradise or another form of hell? Tune in to the gambling show of the century as it returns to mesmerize a nation.