Japan’s Ruling, Opposition Parties Agree to Submit Online Casino Bill; Illegal Betting Totals More Than ¥1 Trillion

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:45 JST, May 16, 2025

A bill to tighten regulations on illegal online casinos is expected to be submitted during the current Diet session following an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties.

Following a working-level consultation, the parties within the Diet agreed on Thursday to submit a bill to revise the basic law on countermeasures against gambling addiction before the Diet session ends.

Key provisions of the bill include the prohibition of opening or operating online casino platforms. The bill is expected to be submitted to the Diet by the chairperson of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Cabinet as early as this month. The bill is also highly likely to be passed into law during the current Diet session.

In addition to prohibiting the establishment and operation of casinos, the revised bill will also ban advertisements leading to casino sites and the guiding of users to casino sites through social media and other platforms.

The government aims to revise the law in order to remove loopholes and clearly define these activities as illegal. It also aims to make it easier for communication providers to remove advertisements and posts at the request of the police and other authorities.

The bill also requires the central and local governments to conduct public relations and awareness campaigns to inform the public that online casinos are illegal. However, the absence of penalty provisions will make it difficult to ensure the effectiveness of these regulations.

Attending the consultation that day were working-level officials from eight parties and parliamentary groups: the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party, Reiwa Shinsengumi and Yushi no Kai.

Regarding the revised bill compiled by the LDP, Komeito and the CDPJ, all eight parties and parliamentary groups confirmed that they would finish their internal procedures by the end of the month and promptly submit the bill to the committee.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry last month established an expert panel to deliberate on deterrent measures. The panel has started discussing the implementation of a method to forcibly block connections to casino websites.

While online casinos are permitted in some foreign countries, their use from within Japan is subject to the nation’s Penal Code provisions on gambling.

The National Police Agency’s survey results released in March revealed that about 3.37 million people have used online casinos from Japan, with total annual wagers reaching about ¥1.2 trillion.

Of those who have used online casinos, 31% are in their 20s and 27% are in their 30s. Since many people are using these websites without realizing its illegality, countermeasures are considered a pressing issue.