Nine Japanese nationals arrested for operating an offshore online casino
Kanagawa prefectural police have announced that they had arrested nine people on 5 June after being tied to running a Curacao online casino.
The people were involved in operating payment systems for at least six sites. Customer deposits into accounts associated with these sites amounted to more than JPY90 billion (US$624 million)1 JPY = 0.0069 USD
2025-06-06Powered by CMG CurrenShift in a little more than a year, from March 2023 until July 2024.
Police became aware of the existence of these accounts in March 2023 because of an unusually large number of deposits and withdrawals in a short period.
This led to a lengthy investigation, which discovered that the accounts where customers at the casino deposit money were frequently replaced, with about 10 accounts operating at one time.
A member of the investigation team explained the lengthy nature of the investigation, telling The Asahi Shimbun, “the usual investigation process, which involves repeated account inquiries, takes a long time. Seizing the server opened the door to a clearer view of the investigation.”
The police explained that the bets were placed with an entity abroad does not matter. As the bets were placed in Japan, they are considered illegal.
Japan’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would tighten regulations regarding igaming in the country. The bill comes in response to numbers released by the National Police Agency that found over three million Japanese residents had gambled online.
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