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Japan is going all out to combat its massive underground online gambling market by ordering police to probe gambling affiliates nationwide among a slew of new initiatives, confirming a total government assault on the lucrative ecosystem.
The central government is also considering credit card restrictions and an online wagering cap for regulated sports betting, according to the government’s key anti-addiction policy document.
In a gloves-off moment after years of caution and slowly ramping police action, the Cabinet on Friday (March 21) released an amended plan for a “thorough” police crackdown and cross-ministerial attack on gambling addiction that squeezes player options and threatens affiliates with criminal prosecution.
Key to channelling massive Japanese gambling volume through foreign websites, affiliate networks had largely escaped the attention of police and enforcement bureaucrats who were more interested in the role of payment companies and retail gambling offences.
That has all changed with the release of the updated Basic Plan on the Promotion of Gambling Addiction Countermeasures and a summary graphic on Friday.
“The National Police Agency has instructed the thorough crackdown on illegal gambling, including online gambling, and will promote the elimination of illegal gambling and the cleanup of the entertainment environment,” the Basic Plan says.
The Basic Plan will target credit card use, restrict it to a material degree for wagering on approved sports and tackle remittances relating to illegal online gambling.
“In light of the warning issued by the National Police Agency and other agencies that gambling at online casinos is a crime, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has requested credit card companies to inform credit card users of this warning,” the Basic Plan says.
“In addition, in cooperation with the National Police Agency, we have requested credit card companies to suspend credit card payments if they become aware that a credit card user is attempting to make a payment at an online casino.
“We have [also] requested international-brand companies to remove any operators that are confirmed to be operating online casinos for the Japanese market from the credit card payment network.”
Other “future actions” in the Basic Plan include “strengthening the crackdown on not only gamblers [on illegal sites] but also those involved in online gambling operations, such as [payments channels] and affiliates,” the summary says.
The summary states that the government will warn payment operators to comply with a no-gambling transaction policy and will increase pressure on internet service providers, mobile phone carriers and other platform operators to filter and otherwise prohibit online casino promotion and affiliated “introductory sites”, it said.
Other actions include punchier public awareness campaigns, including reference to case studies of online addiction, that will target younger people.
The Consumer Affairs Agency, which has jurisdiction over affiliate activity in general, will join with the education ministry, the Children and Families Agency, and other government departments to promote public awareness on the illegality of online casino gambling through media outlets, student outreach and anti-delinquency activities, it says.
However, the updated Basic Plan also clamps down on pachinko parlour cash machines and the promotion of regulated betting on horseracing, motorboat racing and auto racing.
Regulated betting is set to take on new restrictions on advertising and promotions, caps on wagers, enhanced self-exclusion measures, and increased funding for counselling and medical or workplace intervention.
In a radical move by Japanese standards, the Basic Plan now calls for the removal of automatic teller machines (ATMs) from pachinko parlours.
Japan’s ultimately hardline response to the growth of one of the world’s largest domestic online gambling markets has been years in the making, with affiliate operations able to flourish for at least a decade.
The market became so large and so attractive that major global companies began to invest in Japan-facing websites, though recent police actions and statements targeting online casino gambling seem to have ended public enthusiasm for the Japanese market among more reputable brands.
The National Police Agency this month released commissioned research which estimated that two million Japanese, or roughly two percent of the population, are currently gambling online and that most of these claim to have or admit to gambling addiction.
Police have recently probed foreign websites and launched prosecutions of payment companies and users of offshore websites, both on home computers and smartphones, with the National Police Agency stating in November that around 130 suspects across Japan were in its firing line.
