{"id":777028111,"date":"2025-06-20T09:06:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T12:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777028111"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:42:36","slug":"japanese-baseball-players-are-under-investigation-for-alleged-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japanese-baseball-players-are-under-investigation-for-alleged-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"Japanese baseball players are under investigation for alleged online gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to investigations, four players and one team staff member the Saitama Seibu Lions are accused of accessing online casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Japan.- Four Japanese baseball players and one staff member from the Saitama Seibu Lions, a team from the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), are being investigated for alleged online gambling. The four players are Shuta Tonosaki, Sena Tsuge, Ryosuke Kodama and Shinya Hasegawa have been referred to prosecutors for allegedly accessing online casinos using their smartphones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Seibu Lions has issued a statement expressing regret that it failed to ensure its players understood that online gambling is illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight countries and regions have been asked to block Japanese users from accessing foreign-licensed online casino websites<\/a>. The Japanese government has made the formal requests to Canada, Costa Rica, Georgia, Malta, the Isle of Man (UK), Gibraltar, Cura\u00e7ao and Anjouan Island in the Comoros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s estimated that 70 per cent of 40 Japanese-language casino sites identified in a recent government investigation are licensed in Cura\u00e7ao, and only two explicitly prohibited access from Japan. Japanese law allows only limited forms of betting such as lotteries and government-regulated races (a land-based casino is in construction).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Japan\u2019s House of Representatives approved a bill that woul amend the Basic Law for Countermeasures against Gambling Addiction to ban operating and promoting online casinos<\/a> in the country. The legislation passed with a majority vote and will now be debated in the House of Councillors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s expected that the proposal will be enacted during the current parliamentary session. Both national and local governments would publicise the illegality of online casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Japan asks 8 jurisdictions to block online casino access for its citizens<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to investigations, four players and one team staff member the Saitama Seibu Lions are accused of accessing online casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Japanese baseball players are under investigation for alleged online gambling, prompting the Japanese government to request eight jurisdictions block access to foreign-licensed online casinos for its citizens. Concurrently, Japan's House of Representatives has approved a bill to amend the Basic Law for Countermeasures against Gambling Addiction, aiming to ban the operation and promotion of online casinos within the country. This legislative push underscores Japan's stringent stance on iGaming, with significant implications for both B2C operators and regulatory bodies globally.","focusai_entities":"Saitama Seibu Lions, Nippon Professional Baseball, Shuta Tonosaki, Sena Tsuge, Ryosuke Kodama, Shinya Hasegawa, House of Representatives, House of Councillors","focusai_location":"Japan, Canada, Costa Rica, Georgia, Malta, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Cura\u00e7ao, Comoros","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Cura\u00e7ao Licensing?","query":"Given that 70% of identified Japanese-language casino sites are Cura\u00e7ao-licensed, what immediate and long-term implications does Japan's IP blocking request have for Cura\u00e7ao's B2C licensing jurisdiction and its regulatory oversight?"},{"label":"Legislative Enforcement Timeline?","query":"What is the anticipated timeline for the enactment and enforcement of Japan's proposed legislation banning online casino operations and promotion, and what specific penalties are expected for non-compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[470,4138],"class_list":["post-777028111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-japan","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028111","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\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777028111"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777028128,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777028111\/revisions\/777028128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777028111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777028111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777028111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}