Japanese police crackdown on illegal casino sites
Japan’s National Police Agency has started to request the removal of icasino websites and related advertisements that are aimed at Japanese users.
The move is part of a national crackdown on illegal gambling associated with a revised law on gambling addiction measures, which is set to take effect on 25 September.
The amended law bans icasinos that target the Japanese market and the promotion and advertising of these services. Although many of these websites operate legally in other countries, they don’t have licenses to offer gambling products to the Japanese market, and their presence in Japan has grown sharply.
The NPA said that it will request takedowns from domestic and foreign operators and said it may revise the guidelines of Japan’s main Internet monitoring body, the Internet Hotline Center (IHC), to include illegal igaming.
The IHC has not previously targeted this type of content. Sites that offer “free” versions of casino games or that host links to casino sites also may be removed, and a senior police official confirmed that the NPA was determined to take action against such sites.
“We would like to make it known both in Japan and abroad that the operation of casino sites and advertisements will become illegal in Japan as a result of the enforcement of the revised law. We will persistently make repeated requests for removal,” the officer told Japan News.
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