Tim is a journalist, author, and columnist with two decades of experience writing for outlets like the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He is an expert on regulation, business, and industry and is fluent...
Read Full BioAn association of some of the nation’s top firms estimates that Japanese residents spend $44.2 billion on overseas-based illegal sports betting sites annually.
Per a report from Nikkei, the claim comes from the Council for Sports Ecosystem Promotion. The council comprises 115 of Japan’s biggest companies, including NTT Docomo, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, ASICS, Mizuho Bank, NEC, and Softbank.
Japanese Sports Betting Crackdown Incoming?
The body aims to accelerate the digital transformation process in Japanese sports and increase grassroots sports’ social value.
The council conducted a survey during the Financial Year 2024. It found that, in this period, Japanese residents placed bets worth 6.4503 trillion yen on sports-related bets on overseas sites.
The survey found that Japanese gamblers placed 1.183 trillion yen ($8.1 billion) worth of bets on domestic sports fixtures in FY2024.
This figure dwarfs the $915 million that Japanese residents spent on the official Sports Promotion Lottery in the same year.
The authors noted that over half of these illegal bets were on professional baseball games. Soccer and basketball-related bets accounted for a cumulative 333.4 billion yen ($2.3 billion)
The council is concerned about the risk of sports players conspiring to fix matches.
It also called for an international framework to combat illegal sports gambling. The body will work with similar organizations in countries worldwide on anti-match fixing initiatives.
Match Fixing Revelations
Match-fixing allegations continue to plague Japanese sports. In 2011, the nation was rocked by a major sumo tournament scandal.
In 2017, the Japanese tennis player Junn Mitsuhashi was banned for life and fined $50,000 for attempting to rig two professional matches in 2015.
Several high-profile Japanese baseball players have recently admitted to visiting online casinos.
In March, 16 professional players, including the Orix Buffaloes pitcher Taisuke Yamaoka, were fined and suspended for illegally using online betting sites.
This month, two more players from the Yomiuri Giants were referred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of placing bets on casino sites.
Major Japanese media outlets claim that while Japan has outlawed most forms of sports betting, efforts to stop residents from placing bets on games are “unregulated and chaotic.”
The outlets say this means a continuous outflow of funds is heading to overseas betting sites, many of which openly cater to Japanese bettors.
Illegal Casino Sites Growing in Popularity
In March this year, Tokyo announced plans to update its existing plans to curb gambling addiction in Japan.
The plan was launched in earnest under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The latter told parliament that “ministries and agencies must work together to crack down on online casinos. Regardless, the number of people using these sites in Japan appears to be rising.
In March, the newspaper Ryukyu Shimpo reported that the National Police Agency estimates 3.37 million Japanese people have visited online casinos, where they have placed bets worth some 1.2 trillion yen ($8.2 billion).
The agency said it arrested 279 people for online casino-related gambling in 2024. While this number is relatively small, it represents a x2.6 increase from 2023’s figures.
The agency based its estimates on a nationwide survey of 27,145 people. Police found that most online casino patrons are aged 30 and below, with 6% aged 15-19. Forty percent of survey respondents claimed they “did not realize online gambling was illegal.”
Investigators think that 70% of Japanese-language online casinos operate out of the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao.
Police have also warned celebrities and influencers. The agency said some social media stars have promoted online casinos. Officers warned that this could be punishable as a form of “abetting gambling.”Despite the crackdown, work is underway on an $8.1 billion casino in Osaka. The casino would be the nation’s first, and operators say it will be ready to open its doors in 2030.
