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Read Full BioJapanese police have teamed up with the nation’s foreign ministry to ask the governments in seven nations or territories to shut down online casinos that target domestic web users.
Tokyo has stepped up its efforts to stamp out illegal online gambling in the past few months, with a crackdown on celebrities and sports stars who use foreign gambling apps.
Lawmakers have also voted in favor of a private member’s bill that seeks to increase the punishments available to courts prosecuting people accused of operating or using overseas casino sites.
Japanese Casino Crackdown
The National Diet wants to criminalize the promotion of such sites. It aims to grant law enforcement agencies the authority to initiate criminal proceedings against social media influencers who promote online casinos on their platforms.
Lawmakers submitted their bill to Yoshitaka Ito, the Minister of State for Special Missions in the Cabinet Office, for final approval on June 18, the Constitutional Party of Japan reported.
However, the National Police Agency is currently powerless to stop online casinos operating in overseas jurisdictions.
Instead, the newspaper Yomiuri explained, the agency has turned to the central government to ask seven of its counterparts to act.
The agency is particularly keen for the government of the Dutch Caribbean territory of Curaçao to cooperate.
It believes that some 70% of the illegal online casino sites that actively target Japanese gamblers are based in Curaçao.
Close Sites or Force Them to Block Japanese Traffic, Police Urge
The agency, via the ministry, also asked authorities in Costa Rica, Canada, Malta, Georgia, Gibraltar, and the UK’s Isle of Man for their cooperation in May this year, the outlet explained.
Tokyo has also asked the authorities in Anjouan, an autonomous part of the Comoro Islands, for their cooperation in the matter.
A ministry spokesperson said police hope the nations’ governments will either force the sites to close or impose geo-blocking orders.
These orders could force online casino providers to block Japanese IP addresses from accessing their sites. The ministry has also asked the governments in question to force online gambling services to remove Japanese-language services and content.
The ministry also wants such sites to clearly indicate, in Japanese, that gambling is a criminal act in Japan.
The agency said it would cooperate with the aforementioned governments to “encourage” casino operators to halt services for Japanese users.
Police Have 40 Sites in Crosshairs
In the past, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the nation’s top financial regulator, has sent “cease and desist” requests directly to overseas-based crypto exchange operators who court Japanese customers.
Japanese law dictates that only FSA permit-holding platforms can provide crypto exchange services to Japanese customers.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ expert panel suggested that Tokyo create a blacklist of online casinos with Japanese language services.
The ministry could then seek to force Japanese IP providers to block their customers from accessing these sites.
The police believe that the majority of Japanese gambling-related traffic is concentrated on just 40 overseas sites.
Officers think some 3.37 million Japanese residents have gambled on online casino platforms.
