Japan panel backs website blocking as online casino enforcement hits multi-year high

An expert panel under Japan’s communications ministry has endorsed website blocking as a potentially effective tool against illegal online casinos, as police data shows enforcement against online gambling reached its highest level since 2018 in 2025.

Japan’s crackdown on illegal online gambling has entered a more forceful phase after an expert panel under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications presented a draft report concluding that website blocking can be an effective countermeasure against online casinos. The panel said the effectiveness of blocking “cannot be denied,” but it also warned that such a measure could interfere with constitutionally protected rights, including the secrecy of communications and the public’s freedom to know.

Crucially, the panel did not recommend immediate implementation without conditions. Its draft says blocking should only be considered after other less rights-restrictive measures have been sufficiently pursued and assessed, including the tighter control of advertising and other policy tools under Japan’s revised basic law against gambling addiction. A final version of the report is expected as early as this summer.

The tougher policy debate is unfolding against a clear rise in enforcement activity. According to fresh National Police Agency data, 317 people were arrested or otherwise subjected to enforcement action for suspected involvement in online gambling in 2025, up from the previous year and the highest figure recorded since 2018. Jiji also reported that 196 of those cases involved people using online casino sites on their own, showing how strongly the problem is spreading beyond organised operators.

Japan’s police have been reinforcing the message that the activity remains illegal even when the casino operator is licensed abroad. On its official public-warning page, the NPA says that connecting from inside Japan to gamble on overseas online casino sites is a crime under Japanese law. The same page says Japan has been intensifying enforcement and notes that a 2025 legal revision made online casino advertising, promotional inducement and app-store listing of such services illegal from 25 September 2025.

That broader legal backdrop helps explain why website blocking is now being treated more seriously. Japan is no longer relying only on player arrests and public-awareness campaigns, but is gradually moving toward a model that also targets traffic flows, promotion and digital access infrastructure. Even so, the government has not yet made a final decision to introduce blocking, and the panel’s own draft makes clear that constitutional and proportionality concerns still need to be weighed carefully.

For the market, the significance of this moment lies in the combination of rising enforcement numbers and expanding policy ambition. The record 2025 figures show that online casino use remains a live and growing issue in Japan, while the panel’s support for blocking suggests authorities are preparing to move beyond reactive policing toward more preventive digital controls. If that happens, Japan’s next regulatory phase will be defined less by simple warnings and more by direct intervention in how users reach illegal gambling services.