{"id":777024087,"date":"2025-03-14T09:51:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T12:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777024087"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:50:33","slug":"over-3-million-people-in-japan-engaged-in-online-gambling-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/over-3-million-people-in-japan-engaged-in-online-gambling-survey-finds","title":{"rendered":"Over 3 million people in Japan engaged in online gambling, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>About JPY1.24tn (US$8.4bn) is reportedly wagered annually on online gambling sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- A survey conducted by <strong>Japan\u2019s National Police Agency (NPA)<\/strong> has found that <strong>3.37 million people in the country <\/strong>have gambled at online casinos, spending around JPY1.24tn (US$8.4bn) annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conducted between last July and January, the survey involved 27,145 participants aged 15 to 79. According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the research found that 3.5 per cent of respondents (or 3.37 million people nationwide) had gambled at online casinos, and that an estimated 1.97 million continued to gamble online illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some 75.2 per cent of users who accessed free online casino sites on their smartphones later played paid versions where they gambled with real money. The average annual betting amount per user was reported to be around JPY630,000 (US$4,224).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Out of 500 gamblers and 6,500 nongamblers surveyed, 3,044 people, or 43.5 per cent, did not know that online casino gambling is illegal in Japan. Some 60 per cent of the 500 gamblers admitted to having a gambling addiction, and 46 per cent said they had gone into debt at least once because of online casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About <strong>23 per cent of gamblers <\/strong>started betting at online casinos after being influenced by famous people, like professional athletes and celebrities in ads. The survey also found that only two out of 40 online casino sites with Japanese instructions stated that accessing them from Japan is illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A land-based casino is in development in Osaka and horse racing betting is allowed, but online gambling in Japan is illegal and can be punished with fines of up to JNY500,000 (US$3,282) and prison sentences of up to three years. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the government plans to set up a forum to <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-to-consider-blocking-access-to-online-casinos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discuss the issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wakayama governor still interested in hosting Japanese casino IR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Wakayama governor\u00a0<strong>Shuhei Kishimoto<\/strong> has said that the prefecture would consider bidding to host an integrated resort (IR) with a casino if Japan opens a new round of applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wakayama was initially one of the bidders for Japan\u2019s first round of casino licences but it withdrew its proposal after the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-prefecture-rejects-ir-plan\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prefectural assembly voted against<\/a>&nbsp;the area development plan in 2022. While the national government has yet to announce a second round of applications, Kishimoto&nbsp;said the prefectural government is gathering information on potential opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In November, the Japan Tourism Agency sent a questionnaire to the prefecture to sound out its interest in future IR proposals. Nagasaki prefecture, which submitted a bid during the first round of bids but did not receive approval, also received one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About JPY1.24tn (US$8.4bn) is reportedly wagered annually on online gambling sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A survey by Japan's National Police Agency reveals 3.37 million people engage in illegal online gambling, wagering JPY1.24tn annually, with significant unawareness of its illegality and high rates of addiction and debt. Concurrently, Wakayama Prefecture, led by Governor Shuhei Kishimoto, maintains interest in bidding for an Integrated Resort (IR) with a casino, signaling potential future expansion of regulated land-based gaming.","focusai_entities":"Japan\u2019s National Police Agency (NPA), Asahi Shimbun, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Shuhei Kishimoto, Japan Tourism Agency","focusai_location":"Japan, Osaka, Wakayama, Nagasaki","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), marketing_crm (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Strategy","query":"Given the JPY1.24tn annual illegal online wagering and widespread public unawareness, what specific enforcement mechanisms and public education campaigns will the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications implement following its planned forum?"},{"label":"IR Licensing Outlook","query":"What are the specific criteria and timeline considerations for a potential second round of Integrated Resort (IR) licensing in Japan, and how might the findings on illegal online gambling influence the regulatory framework for future land-based casino operations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,153],"tags":[4138],"class_list":["post-777024087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-igaming-news","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777024087"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777024094,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777024087\/revisions\/777024094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777024087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777024087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777024087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}