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A specialist unit of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has begun drawing up regulatory reforms and may push for new legislation to suppress the nation’s online gambling boom.
An expert ministerial study group on online gambling deterrence met for the first time in Tokyo on Wednesday (April 23), announcing that website blocking will likely be the cornerstone of government intervention.
Academic, legal, media industry and other heavyweights in the ten-member Study Group on the Status of Access Prevention for Online Casinos are primarily eyeing website blocking, citing the efficacy of procedures in other countries, while acknowledging privacy difficulties posed by the Japanese Constitution.
Gakushuin University law professor Motoki Shizume told the study group that website blocking “could be an important option in dealing with the difficulties of online casino pathology”, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
Yomiuri Shimbun president Toshikazu Yamaguchi said: “Japan urgently needs to set up an institution akin to those in several other countries that specialise in blocking as an anti-gambling measure.”
Yamaguchi’s comment reflects enormous media scepticism toward online gambling that has grown in tandem with years of lawmaker and government indifference.
However, the complexity and breadth of an issues paper prepared for the study group suggests that its recommendations could be broader and more nuanced than simply blocking websites.
But in cracking down on their underground online gambling market, one of the world’s largest, the authorities must overcome traditional institutional deference to constitutional privacy and anti-censorship provisions.
For a nation that struggles to counter online piracy of comics and pornography, and whose eventual website blocking for online child pornography is considered exceptional, going after gambling websites may require time and effort to put privacy concerns to rest.
The state-funded NHK broadcaster reported on Wednesday that some group members argued a new law will be required to ensure that anti-gambling measures are effective, likely pushing any concrete government response to the end of the year.
Technical difficulties will also be significant, with illegal online gambling interests adept at creating mirror sites and circumventing website blocks.
However, given the Japanese market’s particular reliance on Japanese-language affiliate websites to endorse and promote foreign products, website blocking could still deter a significant proportion of users.
In addition to Shizume and Yamaguchi, the ministerial study group includes two law professors, a media and governance professor, two attorneys, two consumer advocates and Noriko Tanaka, the high-profile head of the Society Concerned about Gambling Addiction.
Study group observers include the National Police Agency and associations for online safety, telecom carriers and internet providers, but no group or individual from the gaming industry or gaming-proximal interests.
The study group’s first meeting follows the ramping of a nationwide police campaign against illegal online gambling, including the expansion of investigations from payment companies, gaming parlours and individual users to the all-important affiliate sector, which for years nourished the industry under the authorities’ radar.
The government is also considering new restrictions on credit cards for any online gambling transaction, as well as imposing a wagering cap on regulated sports betting.
