Asia

Japan’s House of Representatives Passes Bill to Ban Online Casinos

Published

2 weeks ago

June 5, 2025

Niji Narayan

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Japan’s House of Representatives passed a bill to impose a ban on opening and operating online casino websites in the country.

The lower chamber of parliament cleared the bill to revise a law on tackling gambling addiction by a majority vote.

The revision, which prohibits websites from guiding users to casino sites, came amid recent revelations of the use of virtual casinos by a number of athletes and celebrities.

According to a police survey released in March, 3.37 million people in Japan are estimated to have gambled at online casinos, with around 1.24 trillion yen (about 8.7 billion U.S. dollars) being spent annually.

Gambling is illegal in Japan even if an online casino is operating legally overseas. The revised law is expected to be enacted during the current parliamentary session through June 22.

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Niji Narayan

Niji Narayan has been in the writing industry for well over a decade or so. He prides himself as one of the few survivors left in the world who have actually mastered the impossible art of copy editing. Niji graduated in Physics and obtained his Master’s degree in Communication and Journalism. He has always interested in sports writing and travel writing. He has written for numerous websites and his in-depth analytical articles top sports magazines like Cricket Today and Sports Today. He reports gaming industry headlines from all around the globe.