06 November 2026
In recent years, Japan has tightened its regulations against online casinos, with a stricter crackdown striking a blow to the multi-billion-yen offshore gambling industry. The most significant measures were put into effect in 2024. But as the internet continues to evolve, and as casual mobile gaming leads to more opportunities to gamble, some worry the government needs to recalibrate its efforts to prevent online casino growth.
Japan is not a favorable betting market. All forms of gambling, from slot machines to poker, are strictly prohibited under the country's Penal Code — unless specified by separate laws like the National Racing Association Law. Online casinos have been illegal in Japan for quite some time, and the country’s Integrated Resort (IR) laws establishing large-scale casinos and entertainment zones did not change that fact. Though integrated resorts are expected to become legal in Japan in 2025, online casinos will remain explicitly banned. Many industry experts thought the influx of regulatory interest, which gave Japan legal casinos for the first time, would also cause the government to examine internet gambling. But the printed word showed few signs of relaxing the wide-reaching ban on online betting.
According to an October 2024 report Online Gambling in Japan: Recent Regulatory Developments put out by law firm DLA Piper, Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) has stated unequivocally that gambling online is illegal for Japanese residents even if the online provider is legally licensed offshore. When a Japanese person plays an online casino, no matter where it's based, it’s a criminal act under Japanese law. In the first half of 2024, the NPA made 279 arrests tied to online gambling — a significant uptick in law-enforcement activity compared to the year prior. And starting gambling within the country isn't an option, either. The Japan Gaming Law Overview for 2024, compiled by legal professionals from chambers.com, confirms that operating an online casino from within Japan is also a criminal offense.
The NPA’s stance puts Japanese offshore wagerers in a precarious position. Playing from inside Japan on an offshore provider is illegal. But because there is no licensed online casino anywhere in the world for Japanese customers, such providers have no choice but to continue to operate from outside the country. The NPA now says it is seeking outside support to crack down on online gambling.
In June 2024, GGRAsia reports the Japanese House of Representatives passed a bill to substantially revise the Basic Act on Countermeasures Against Gambling Addiction. This will ban, within Japan, setting up new online casino sites, including through smartphone apps, and regulating Internet ads and social media posts that encourage users to visit such sites. The new law calls on central and local governments to go further in educating the public in Japan about the fact of the illegality of online wagering, even when those casinos are legal abroad. The revised law also makes it easier for authorities and service providers to remove online casino advertisements and related content at the request of law-enforcement agencies, according to the website.
While this sounds like a major regulatory package, the Japanese anti-gambling law, as amended, is not introducing explicit criminal penalties for failing to comply with the new provisions, GGRAsia reports. The country plans to run advertisements explaining that using online casinos is illegal, even when such casinos are legal abroad.
The Japan Gaming Law Overview adds, in 2024, Japan's Gambling Addiction Act as amended prohibits transmitting, via the Internet, information that presents illegal online gaming sites or directs unspecified Japanese residents to such sites. The law underlines that it is illegal to establish and operate online casino platforms within Japan.
Meanwhile, Japan has appealed to foreign regulators in such countries as Malta, Curacao, the Isle of Man and the Philippines to block access for Japanese members or remove Japanese-language interfaces from offshore gambling services, Yogonet has reported. There are still moves on the table to tighten the screws on online gambling, specifically in the form of year-old proposed Diet legislation that would increase penalties and require age-verification for Japanese online players. But not since 2021, when integrated resorts first gained traction, has foreign betting had so much to fear from a clamping-down Japanese law.
But that’s glossing over a huge economic factor. In a July 2024 IPC article Japan’s Evolving Online Casino Laws, it’s stated the NPA, in its 2024 survey on online gambling, offered its own numbers on the scale of the problem: in the first half of 2024, there have been 279 arrests tied to online gambling, more than double the total number in 2023. The NPA has also stated that fully 3.37 million Japanese residents have experience playing online casinos. In the last year, those wagers have added up to roughly JPY 1.2–1.24 trillion, the organization claims.
The social concerns in Japan about gambling addiction are on the rise, as well. The Asahi Shimbun reports the NPA surveyed more than 10,000 people to assess the actual situation of online casinos. Stressing the explosive growth of such gambling because of the spread of smartphones, the NPA’s survey documentation points out that a law amending part of the Basic Act on Measures Against Gambling Addiction was enacted, with the changes expected to come into force this coming September, the daily Tokyo newspaper says.
The reason why casino gambling is banned is that it is considered a social problem, said Tokyo-based DailyMassExit consultant syndicated analyst Zack Albert in an interview with IPC. The Japanese government does not want people playing things they don't understand the odds of. That's a big part of the reason for the very strict casino laws. In fact, the government stresses that it's a social issue, and the laws are enacted around that purpose, he says. I don't think there is any movement on that though, even with rising online crime.