Despite gambling is illegal in Japan, it is estimated that more than three million people in Japan are gambling online. It is believed that many of them are unaware that using the service is illegal in the country.

The Japanese NPA said police nationwide have identified 162 individuals gambling on online casinos and 117 dealers – both record high numbers.

Online casino users may play on slot machines and place bets on roulette and professional sports.

Previously, people would go on online gambling sites at shops in an entertainment district. Recently, however, many people have been using their smartphones to gamble online and purchase points through bank transfers or using their credit cards.

In Japan, the act of gambling is illegal except if it is publicly run, such as horse racing and keirin cycle racing. It is illegal for people in Japan gamble in online casinos, even if the sites are legally operated overseas. Violators could face a fine of up to 500,000 yen (S$4,373), and those who habitually gamble could be punished with imprisonment of up to three years.

Online casino operators are based overseas and many of them are legally operated with approval from local governments. For police in Japan to get cooperation for the investigations, both countries need to have laws in place that punish similar activities. As a result, it is difficult for Japanese police to catch those involved.

For this reason, the NPA is stepping up efforts to crack down on payment agency service operators. These operators offer such services as exchanging yen with points used on gambling sites.

Police have used the information from accounts used to purchase points to identify online casino users.

The Tokyo-based International Casino Institute found that 2.8 per cent of respondents had gambled in online casinos in the past 12 months, according to its survey conducted on 6,000 people in Japan in August and September 2024. The results, if extrapolated to the size of Japan’s population, suggest an estimated 3.46 million people have gambled online in the country.

The Yomiuri Shimbun looked at the total number of times 30 popular online casinos that offer services in Japanese and other languages were accessed in 2024. The results showed that the sites were accessed about 84 million times from Japan. Of those, more than 70 per cent were from smartphones and other mobile devices.