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Courtesy of Aichi prefectural police Computers thought to have been used for sending money for gambling line the shelves in an office of a payment service agent uncovered by the police.
By Kyosuke Murakami and Yuji Kimura /
Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
16:22 JST, March 22, 2025
With a basic plan to combat gambling addiction — which includes measures against payment service operators involved with online casinos — approved by the Cabinet on Friday, the government needs to implement effective measures swiftly to stop illegal gambling as overseas casino websites catering to Japanese users are rampant.
“We want to work with relevant ministries and agencies to dismantle the business model of illegal gambling,” a senior police official in charge of measures against online casinos said after the plan’s Cabinet approval.
In Japan, gambling is illegal under the Penal Code except for publicly licensed betting activities such as horse racing and keirin cycling races. Even if online casinos are operated legally overseas, it is illegal to access and gamble on such casino websites in Japan.
However, there is not widespread awareness among users that such activities constitute a crime.
Japan, which has been slow to take action, has become a target of online casino operators. An analysis by the National Police Agency found that out of 40 overseas casino websites that can be used in the Japanese language, six sites appeared to be aimed exclusively at Japan, with connections only from users in Japan.
The ease with which money can be sent and received through payment service agents appears to have contributed to the widespread use of overseas online casinos for gambling.
The NPA’s first survey on online casinos has revealed that an estimated 3.37 million people in Japan have placed bets on these overseas websites.
Use of such casinos in Japan has flourished largely due to local operators that function as payment service agents, settling bets for and working closely with the site operators. There are fears these agents are encouraging gambling, so policies to deter such practices are urgently required.
“We will firmly crack down on agents and affiliates who advertise online casino websites,” NPA Commissioner General Yoshinobu Kusunoki said at a press conference on March 13, the day survey’s findings were released.
Users of overseas casinos typically place bets with points purchased from the site. Users can choose whether payments are made by credit card, bank transfer, crypto assets or other methods.
However, financial institutions have stringent checks in place to examine overseas remittances as part of efforts to combat money laundering. It is difficult for the average person in Japan to send money for bets directly to an online casino operator based overseas.
Even so, these gambling activities can be easily accessed due to the existence of Japan-based agents that work closely with the casino operators and handle bet payment services. These agents provide users with points — based on the amount they pay — that can be used at the online casinos, and also handle the payment of any winnings.
Casino operators promote themselves as having features such as simple options for putting money in and taking it out, but the process can be difficult for users to discern.
“It was easy to send money for bets,” a man in his 20s who gambled on online slot machines said. “I didn’t think it was illegal.”
Taking their cut
The payment service agents partner with the site operators and receive commissions on customers’ transactions. An agent’s cut apparently varies depending on their contract, with some pocketing 0.5% or even 7%.
The Metropolitan Police Department in 2023 uncovered a case of suspected facilitation of habitual gambling by an agent in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, who used a payment processing system called Sumo Pay. The payment system has since been shut down. According to investigation sources, the agent handled more than ¥50 billion from about 42,000 customers and received a cut of 2% to 3% from the casino operator.
In February, the Kanagawa prefectural police discovered a separate agent was managing about 500 bank accounts. This agent reportedly had collected about ¥90 billion in bets since 2023 and netted commissions worth about ¥4.7 billion.
Police have used information gleaned from such agents to identify online casino users and are continuing to uncover cases of suspected gambling.
“It’s vital that we expose and prosecute the unscrupulous agents,” a senior investigation official told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Suspicions of money laundering
There is mounting suspicion that some agents are engaged in large-scale money laundering.
In 2024, the Osaka prefectural and Aichi prefectural police forces uncovered the so-called Rivaton group, which was suspected of concealing criminal funds in violation of the organized crime punishment law.
The group, which allegedly laundered money gambled through online casinos, managed about 4,000 bank accounts under the names of about 500 companies. The group promoted itself to casino operators as a “receiving agent” for Japanese people and had contracts with about 50 such operators.
The accounts were for shell companies established based on account holders recruited through social media. Police believe money sent by online casino users was passed through multiple linked accounts and mixed in with separate criminal funds before being remitted overseas.
Agents operate in a range of ways. Some pass themselves off as receiving agents, and others recruit individual customers by reaching out through social media. It has emerged that some agents were involved in a tokuryu, or “anonymous and fluid criminal group,” but much of their actual activities remain unclear.
Police are trying to identify shady agents through steps such as analyzing bank accounts used for criminal activities. In December, the NPA instructed police nationwide to thoroughly clamp down on payment service agents operating illegally.
In Europe, countries such as Germany have introduced measures that prohibit financial institutions from conducting business transactions with illegal casino operators.
Waseda University Prof. Takashi Kubota, an expert on money laundering and international financial law, believes Japan must do more to tackle this issue.
“The public and private sectors in Japan also should quickly share information on casino websites and payment accounts,” Kubota said. “A framework that blocks the usage of illegal casinos by preventing transactions also needs to be put in place.”
