Online Gambling Probably Not Coming to Japan Any Time Soon

In many countries around the world, gambling online is illegal. Some governments forbid their citizens from spending actual money at online casinos and sportsbooks to protect them from things like addiction and debt, or even for moral reasons.

Japan is one such country. Online gambling is currently illegal, even though some forms of land-based gambling are permitted under law. You can buy lottery tickets, visit pachinko parlours to play slot machines that work in a similar way to pinball games and place bets on a small selection of sporting events:

• Horse races
• Bicycle races
• Motorcycle races
• Powerboat races

There are quite a few similar countries where certain forms of real-world gambling are al-lowed, but going online to gamble isn’t.

Online Gambling in Japan in 2021

As it stands in early 2021, it’s still against the law to gamble online while anywhere in Ja-pan. However, many people in the country regularly visit gambling sites and place bets with real money. Some of them do this without actually being aware that they’re breaking the law.

The sites they visit are based and licensed in other countries. They encourage Japanese people to sign up and spend their money, often attracting them through social media campaigns. Many of them reassure people from Japan that becoming a member of the casino/sportsbook and placing bets there isn’t going to get them into trouble.

Some of the biggest gambling sites that Japanese people visit are listed below:

• Vera & John Casino. Received over 77 million visits from Japanese members in January 2020 alone.
• bet365. Some 13.2 million visits by Japanese people were logged in July 2020.

People gamble online because they think that if they get lucky, they can make more mon-ey. This can happen, but it’s an exception rather than the standard. You’re more likely to lose than win, though this doesn’t stop people trying.

Some people in Japan don’t realise that gambling online is actually illegal. Those who are aware of its legal status still practise it, even though they’re knowingly breaking the law. They do this because the number of people who get convicted of gambling online is ex-tremely low indeed. Few people are prosecuted because the police have higher priorities. There’s also the fact that it can be hard to prove that someone’s been visiting illegal gam-bling sites, especially when people use things like cryptocurrencies to protect their ano-nymity.

The Future of Japan’s Online Gambling Approach

It seems that those living in Japan will have to accept that the country’s online gambling laws aren’t going to change any time soon. Hachiro Okonogi, who is the Chairperson of the Liberal Democratic Party’s National Public Safety Commission, recently reaffirmed the country’s stance on online gambling.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been an increase in Japanese people practising online gambling. This is simply because more people are spending time at home and many people choose gambling as a way of passing their time. As before the pandem-ic, people access sites based in other countries in order to get their online gambling fix.

A fellow politician asked Okonogi if the country’s approach to online gambling was going to change in light of more illegal online gambling taking place. Okonogi replied that while Ja-pan’s making changes to its laws regarding real-world gambling, the act of placing bets online is still very much considered illegal. In fact, the laws to do with online gambling may even be getting tougher. He affirmed that the government has been cracking down on online casinos and will continue to do so.

Where Does the Country Go From Here?

As is the case in many countries, people are technically breaking the law by gambling online, but the vast majority of them escape getting noticed by the authorities. Even if Ja-pan’s laws get stricter, there are loads more people gambling online, so the percentage of gamblers that get prosecuted will likely remain quite small.

What could happen is that the government may decide to legalise gambling and make money from it by taxing it. The government could be missing out on a potentially large source of revenue by keeping online gambling illegal. The USA has gradually made online gambling legal – a growing number of states have made it legal in recent years. Even though Japan’s approach isn’t in favour of it, there’s every chance the country could adopt a different approach in the coming years.

Whatever happens, people in Japan will still be able to spend money playing casino games and placing bets on sports. Even if the government introduces tough measures, such as blocking certain sites, people will always find a way around them. Gambling sites may not be able to legally operate and get licensed in Japan right now, but they’re still able to make quite a lot of money from Japanese people keen to try their luck.