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Japanese police have launched a nationwide wave of prosecutions against users of offshore gambling websites from home or on mobile devices, dramatically escalating the government’s crackdown against the nation’s illegal gambling ecosystem.
At least ten people in greater Tokyo and 57 people across 24 prefectures are set to be questioned by prosecutors, among a total of more than 130 suspects in the firing line, the National Police Agency and Japanese media reported.
The common link between the suspects is the use of cryptocurrency to gamble, with metropolitan police in Tokyo using a cryptocurrency asset tracing tool for the first time to combat illegal gambling.
The police notifications to suspects on Tuesday (November 26) also represent the first coordinated police action against online gamblers nationwide and confirm that law enforcement is no longer relying on education campaigns to dissuade users against online gambling.
Police allege the suspects accessed foreign-based websites Bitcasino, Sportsbet.io and Vera & John between April 2023 and September 2024, using cryptocurrency in each case to place bets on online table games, online slots or sports events and collect any winnings, the reports said.
Police said that all interviewed subjects admitted to gambling on overseas websites and losing money, with one gambler losing some ¥30m ($200,000).
The government’s campaign against online gambling has accelerated in the last year after a considerable period of inaction and public confusion over the legal status of online gambling.
A perception of the untouchability of people in their own homes or using a mobile device to access overseas gambling websites has persisted throughout this period.
Previously, the authorities have arrested online gamblers linked to embezzling public funds or those discovered in gaming parlours, while also prosecuting local gambling website operators, registered and underground payments companies, parlour operators and owners of front companies that launder offshore gambling funds.
Japanese affiliates, core contributors to the linking of gamblers and offshore websites, have to date not suffered the same treatment.
But police have indicated for some time, since at least a clarifying education campaign in October 2022, that individuals gambling online under any circumstances, regardless of the location of the service, are breaking the law.
Police have also been investigating foreign websites that target the massive Japanese market, warning that Japanese user identities were among their targets, as well as the payment mechanisms they use, their locations and individual gambling transaction patterns.
This week the police also released professional and age information about the latest wave of suspects, emphasising that they are of all ages (20s to 60s) and include professionals, company executives, homemakers and an emergency services employee.
The Asahi Shimbun Daily on Tuesday cited the National Police Agency as saying that 566 people have been arrested over the last five years on suspected online gambling offences.
But this week was the first enforcement action in which a mass police operation targeted online gamblers in their private capacity.
