Japan is widening its response to illegal online gambling after police data showed a record number of enforcement cases in 2025. The National Police Agency said 317 people were arrested or otherwise subject to enforcement action last year for suspected involvement in online gambling, the highest total since the agency began tracking the issue in 2018.
The rise has pushed officials to look beyond individual users. Japan is still treating illegal online gambling as a criminal matter, but the latest approach is also aimed at the businesses and intermediaries that help players reach those sites, move money, or get around the fact that the services are based offshore.
Police are now focusing harder on affiliates and payment channels
The NPA’s own guidance shows that police are already targeting more than gamblers alone. Its enforcement examples include cases against payment agents who collected betting funds for overseas operators and affiliates who used video and other online content to steer people toward illegal sites. The agency has also said that money flowing through payment-service style accounts is part of the problem it is trying to cut off.
That matters because many of the sites used by people in Japan sit outside the country’s direct reach. Going after local conduits gives police something more tangible to hit. It also fits the broader language coming from the agency, which says it wants to build an environment where people are not allowed to use, or simply cannot use, online casino services from inside Japan.
The legal message is getting sharper too
Japan has also tightened the rules around promotion. The NPA says a 2025 amendment made it illegal to present websites or apps that provide illegal online gambling, or to post information that directs users toward them. The law took effect on September 25, 2025 and covers acts such as promoting links on social media or creating roundup-style referral sites.
The government has paired that with a stronger public warning campaign. Official guidance now states plainly that using overseas online casinos from inside Japan is a crime, even if those services are legal where they are operated.
The scale of the problem is why the strategy is changing
The policy shift makes more sense when set against the numbers. An NPA-commissioned survey published in January 2025 estimated that about 3.369 million people in Japan had used online casinos and about 1.967 million were current users, with annual wagering estimated at ¥1.24 trillion. The same survey found the highest usage rates among people in their 20s and 30s.
That helps explain why Japan is no longer relying on one tool. Police enforcement is still rising, but the state is also trying to close off the routes that make illegal online gambling easy to find, easy to fund, and easy to keep using.
