Underage Online Gambling a Growing Problem in Japan, Some Minors Turning To Fraud to Finance Their Habit

By Ryohei Goto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

21:00 JST, November 10, 2025

An increasing number of minors, including junior and high school students, are gambling in online casinos, with some even committing fraud and other crimes to finance their habit.

Young people are believed to be particularly susceptible to gambling addiction. Experts are calling on the people around them to be aware of problems at an early stage and seek help from medical institutions and other resources.

Beginning with smartphone games

“I wanted to have a lot of money so I could keep gambling in online casinos,” a first-year high school student, 15, from Sendai told investigators with the Metropolitan Police Department. The boy was arrested in October for allegedly swindling a man in his 30s out of about ¥1.34 million in a so-called romance scam, in which victims are lured into romantic relationships via social media and then cheated of cash.

The student began gambling online in his first year of junior high school, according to investigators. He became absorbed in smartphone puzzle games and wanted to enjoy an advantage by purchasing data from others at higher levels.

The boy joined an online group chat about gambling after seeing a social media post claiming that someone made a lot of money through online gambling. One of the group’s members told him he should first raise money for gambling, so the student started conducting romance scams, which he read about in a manual titled “How to earn ¥500,000 a month.”

The student told investigators that he had cheated more than 30 men by pretending to be a female college student. The MPD suspects he spent several million yen on online gambling, using the money he earned through romance scams.

Started in sixth grade

Online gamblers have to buy points to be used on casino websites. An increasing number of minors, who cannot get credit cards issued in their names, are dodging this requirement by using cryptocurrency assets sold illegally by unregistered individuals.

The MPD has referred to prosecutors or informed children’s welfare centers about 15 individuals aged from 13 to 21 in Tokyo and nine other prefectures for alleged habitual gambling. Among them was a 13-year-old first-year junior high school student who has been gambling online since he was in the sixth year of elementary school.

Parents may be unaware

According to a National Police Agency’s survey released in March, about 3.37 million people in the country were estimated to have used online casinos. Of those, about 180,000, or around 5%, were aged from 10 to 19. They are believed to have begun gambling online casually, to “have something to talk about” or “kill time.”

Toshiaki Tsuneoka, an associate professor at Showa Medical University and a psychiatrist familiar with gambling addiction, says minors tend to quickly get absorbed in gambling because they have limited means to release stress and their brains are underdeveloped.

The NPA survey found that nearly 70% of those aged 10 to 19 who have gambled online were aware that they were addicted to gambling. That was above the overall average of 60%.

“Because online gambling is conveniently accessible with just a smartphone, there are fears that children may become increasingly addicted to gambling without their parents realizing it,” Tsuneoka said. “More efforts are needed to publicize that people can overcome addiction through treatment at medical institutions and participation in self-help groups.”