Over 3.3 million people gamble online despite ban in Japan: police

The survey also revealed that only two online casino sites out of 40 selected sites with Japanese instructions showed that access from Japan is illegal.

After reading this article, I would assume the use of online sports gambling sites like DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM is illegal in Japan. Anyone have any experience they’re willing to share?

According to an undercover operation coordinated and broadcast on a recent Michael Lewis “Against the Rules” podcast, successful gamblers are flagged and apparently kicked off those sites. In fact, Lewis joked that the first question you should ask a potential financial planner is, “Do you have a FanDuel or DraftKings account?”

Ban won't stop anything, in fact in Japan there are plenty pachinko, not only that Japan also planned to develop Japan's first casino.

The problem with those online sites, JGovt can't get tax revenue from it, that simple.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/japan-approves-osaka-site-countrys-first-casino-2023-04-14/

"We take the widespread practice of illegal online gambling very seriously," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference, vowing to promote effective countermeasures.

Amazing what this govt. takes seriously. Selling smokes, smoking, and allowing smoking in restaurants - FINE. Flutter online - Not tolerated.

I was hospitalized for alcohol. There were plenty of punters there, too. That's why the hospital had no WiFi access, Still, patients got around it. Addiction is addiction.

How Funny, there is a gambling parlor in every little town and large city in Japan it is called PACHINKO, and it is well protected and run by the most powerful groups and no one can stop them

This means whatever ever measures the police and other agencies are taking are USELESS.

STOP wasting the tax payers money and make it LEGA, then collect more taxes.

Japan needs to just own up to the fact that they already have a well-established and thriving gambling industry. It's called Pachinko. They are literally as numerous and abundant as convenience stores. Everywhere you go, you can see these eyesore buildings and lord help you if you decide to venture into one. Your ears will never recover.

All I know is this, people can gamble on anything and can bet on anything. I've seen people gambling over a board game and a basketball game. I personally don't gamble and I don't endorse it, but I get why people get hooked. The Japanese are just like people from other parts of the globe, some like to gamble. That's why there's pachinko parlors and there's shops nearby that buy the ball bearings you win.

There have been moves to nationalize casinos in Japan as well, but few municipalities have been able to make it a reality.

Banning them would not reduce the number of people playing, and it has been reported that more than $12 billion is spent on them every year, so pachinko, which already exists, should be nationalized quickly.

Incidentally, the pachinko industry has become a place for police officers to retire to, so I think it should be nationalized as well. It is also said that they are being used as a resource for missile development in North Korea and other countries, so it would be best to use them as a source of funding for Japanese taxes.

Incidentally, the pachinko industry has become a place for police officers to retire to, so I think it should be nationalized as well. It is also said that they are being used as a resource for missile development in North Korea and other countries, so it would be best to use them as a source of funding for Japanese taxes.

So your wild claim is that Japan’s police are retiring to jobs in the pachinko industry and subsequently helping to fund missile development in North Korea?

Seems rather far-fetched.

Why would Japan’s police support North Korea?

Bobby Frank - lots of speculation to spread around.

But well documented over the course.

Pachinko parlors have long been a place where retired police officers worked. Part of the supposed reasoning was it gives an extra "ear of security"???

And traditionally many/most of the businesses were/are operated by Koreans and esp those with links to NK.

Pachinko has been a known source of hard funds for the NK for decades called Pachinko Profit.

I'm not a fan of gambling, but the issue here is that the money is not going to where they want it to go and it is totally out of their control.

I presume a Japanese company could come up with a form of online gambling Japanese would like if it were legal. Japanese tv, pop music, video games, etc. are all popular. Japan is not very reliant on foreigners for entertainment. Therefore the idea that online gambling is illegal because Japanese elites wouldn't benefit from it is dubious.

I fully support online gambling being illegal. Society does not improve when mothers and fathers sit at the dining table gambling away the family budget in front of their children. The damage from extra gambling will vastly outweigh any benefit from it. Since lots of wrongs don't make a right, I woudn't be opposed to shutting down pachinko etc. either.

Guess Pachinko Parlors want the LAW enforced!

Online gambling is insiduous. Compared to pachinko it is very easy, can be done from anywhere and it is very easy to lose a lot of money very quickly.

Pachinko isnt gambling! People waste time playing with their balls, hoping to take some trinkets home!

Anyone who thinks differently doesnt know that "gambling" is illegal in Japan!

Everywhere you go, you can see these eyesore buildings and lord help you if you decide to venture into one. Your ears will never recover.

Indedd a great scene in Lost in Translation made me never want to consider entering one.

If for example, an Englishman bet online from Japan at a UK bookmaker and paid by using his UK bank. Would this be breaking the law? Asking for a friend.

Mr KiplingToday  04:01 pm JST

If for example, an Englishman bet online from Japan at a UK bookmaker and paid by using his UK bank. Would this be breaking the law? Asking for a friend.Mr KiplingToday  04:01 pm JST

If for example, an Englishman bet online from Japan at a UK bookmaker and paid by using his UK bank. Would this be breaking the law? Asking for a friend.

Yes if you are a fiscal resident of Japan.

Otherwise, by using a foreign bank account, I do not see how someone would know, unless you make millions going into your UK bank account that would look suspicious. And reported by the bank to the authorities of UK then Japan.

Mr KiplingToday  04:01 pm JST

If for example, an Englishman bet online from Japan at a UK bookmaker and paid by using his UK bank. Would this be breaking the law?

I would think so, if he's in Japan.

When in another country, we are obliged to obey its laws.

I see a lot of "what about pachinko?" comments on here.

I get what they're saying, but I'm not convinced that pachinko and online gambling are on an equal plane.

I'm not a gambler at all, so I can't comment on this issue from a place of direct knowledge or experience.

But it does seem to me -- again, as a non-gambler who's on the outside of this issue looking in -- that online gambling would be a lot riskier.

I have no doubt that pachinko-playing can be excessive and obsessive -- but my hunch is that for most people, pulling yourself away from an online gambling site would be much more difficult.

I would imagine that, while all forms of gambling can be addictive, online gambling can be particularly so. So many of us just can't pull ourselves away from that screen, keyboard, or touchpad. Especially while sitting in your home all by yourself.

Not very easily, anyway.

It was not uncommon in the news that parents who were obsessed with pachinko would leave their young children in the car and die.

There may have been cases of suicide, but I have never heard of anyone dying at an online casino.

It is well known in Japan that pachinko is a source of funding for North Korea. It has even been on the agenda at the United Nations.

Collusion between pachinko industry groups and the police has also been in the news. https://facta.co.jp/article/201608015.html

With pachinko parlors on every street it’s ridiculous it’s not allowed. Frankly speaking it should be regulated and taxed. Japan always sees things so strangely.