Online Casinos: ‘Unawareness of Illegality’ Is Not An Acceptable Response

Editorial

15:55 JST, February 12, 2025

There is no end to young people and others who casually gamble in online casinos through their smartphones and get in over their head. The fact that such casinos are illegal in Japan should be made well known to people and efforts to identify both operators and users should be strengthened.

The police have referred to prosecutors Koki Niwa, a bronze medalist on the Japanese men’s table tennis team at the Tokyo Olympics, for allegedly gambling by accessing an overseas online casino site from within Japan. Niwa is suspected of placing bets using crypto assets as a source of funds.

Niwa was quoted as saying that he used the casino after seeing online ads, and that he was “unaware that it was illegal.”

Two comedians who belong to Yoshimoto Kogyo Holdings Co. were also questioned by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of gambling with a casino in the same manner.

In Japan, betting on anything other than public gambling, such as horse and bicycle races, is illegal. Online casinos that are legally operated overseas are also illegal to use in Japan. Many people probably use online casinos without knowing this.

Last year, police nationwide identified more than 160 online casino users, three times the number in the previous year.

Online casinos offer betting on slots, roulette and professional sports, among other things. The number of users in Japan is said to have increased rapidly as people refrained from going out during the COVID-19 pandemic, and by one estimate the user base has exceeded 3 million.

Since online casinos can be accessed through smartphones at any time, users can easily become addicted. Online casinos also sometimes contribute to the spread of crime, for example with some users who have accumulated debts applying for “dark part-time jobs” on social media. This is a serious situation that cannot be left unattended.

The police have arrested a number of “settlement agents” who act as intermediaries in the exchange of funds for online betting. They have also been working to uncover money laundering cases in which casino profits are laundered.

However, it is difficult to detect online casino operators because some of them operate legally overseas. The current situation — in which young Japanese people and others are getting involved in illegal gambling one after another and are being driven past the point of no return — must be changed.

It is important for the police to continue to cut off the flow of funds for casino operators and stop the spread of illegal gambling. It is also essential to make efforts to educate people who are unaware that using casinos in Japan constitutes a crime, utilizing social media and other means to convey that information.

Many online casinos advertise in Japanese that they are “safe and secure” and “legal.” The government needs to investigate the situation and take strict measures if the ads are found to be illegal, through such means as urging the online platform operators and others to remove them.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 12, 2025)