Online gambling in Japan: regulation, licence and market guide

Is online gambling legal in Japan?

Japan's Penal Code prohibits gambling except for publicly run products carved out by statute: horse, bicycle, motorcycle and motorboat racing, the takarakuji lottery and the toto/BIG/WINNER sports lottery, which their public operators may sell online. There is no licence for private online casino, poker or bookmaking, and the National Police Agency treats play on foreign-licensed sites from inside Japan as an offense. A June 2025 amendment to the Basic Act on Measures against Gambling Addiction, in force since 25 September 2025, bans affiliate, ranking and social-media promotion of illegal online gambling to people in Japan. Land-based casinos will exist only inside licensed integrated resorts; the first, MGM Osaka, is due to open in 2030.

Prohibited: Online gambling is illegal for operators and players and is enforced.

Who regulates gambling in Japan?

• National Police Agency (警察庁) (NPA) — Enforces the Penal Code gambling offenses, supervises pachinko under the Amusement Business Act and leads action against online casino use and promotion
• Casino Regulatory Commission (カジノ管理委員会) (CRC) — Licenses and supervises casino operators inside approved integrated resorts under the IR Implementation Act
• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省) (MIC) — Issues the illegal-information guidelines under which platforms remove content that induces people in Japan to use illegal online gambling

Japan gambling licence: how it works

No licence exists for online casino, online poker or private sports betting in Japan, and none is planned. Casino licences exist only for land-based operation inside an integrated resort area approved by the national government; the IR Implementation Act 2018 caps the first round at three areas, and only Osaka (MGM Resorts and Orix) was approved, on 14 April 2023. The Casino Regulatory Commission examines the operator, its officers and any 5% shareholder for suitability, financial soundness and problem-gambling and AML controls. Public racing, takarakuji and toto are closed to private operators.

What an applicant needs

• Online casino, poker and private bookmaking: no licensing route exists
• Land-based casino: only inside an approved integrated resort, one casino per area, maximum three areas in the first round
• Casino operator, officers and holders of 5% or more must pass Casino Regulatory Commission suitability review
• Casino floor limited to 3% of the resort's floor area; residents pay a JPY 6,000 entrance fee and face entry-count limits

Gambling taxes in Japan

• Operators: None for online gambling because none is licensed. Integrated-resort casinos will pay 15% of GGR to the national government and 15% to the host prefecture (IR Implementation Act 2018).
• Players: Takarakuji prizes are tax-exempt; other winnings follow ordinary income-tax rules. Winnings from illegal online casino play give no protection from prosecution.
• Also: Residents entering an IR casino pay JPY 3,000 to the national government and JPY 3,000 to the prefecture per entry. Pachinko is regulated as amusement, not gambling.

Advertising, player protection, KYC and payments

Advertising

Since 25 September 2025 no one transmitting information online may present an illegal online gambling website or app to unspecified people in Japan, or send information that induces them to use one. The NPA lists banner ads, social posts with links, influencer streams, affiliate deals and ranking sites as prohibited; MIC guidelines treat such content as illegal information that platforms are asked to remove. IR casino advertising is separately restricted by the Casino Regulatory Commission.

Responsible gaming

The Basic Act on Measures against Gambling Addiction (2018) requires national and prefectural plans; the 2025 amendment adds a duty to publicize that online casino use is illegal. IR casinos will apply resident entry limits, entrance fees and self- and family-exclusion.

Identity and age verification

Public racing and lottery platforms require a Japanese bank account and age verification (20 for public racing, 19 for toto). IR casinos will verify identity with the My Number card at every entry.

Payments

There is no lawful payment rail for online casino play. Public betting and lottery products are funded by bank transfer and cards through official platforms. Police cases have targeted settlement agents, borrowed bank accounts and crypto wallets used to fund foreign casino sites.

Notable restrictions

• Playing on any online casino from inside Japan is a Penal Code offense, even if the site is licensed abroad
• Presenting or promoting online casino sites or apps to people in Japan is prohibited since 25 September 2025
• Private sports betting and online poker have no legal basis
• Free-play versions that funnel users to real-money casino sites are treated as inducement to illegal gambling

Japan iGaming market: size, players and payments

The National Police Agency's first survey, published in March 2025, estimated that about 3.37 million people in Japan had used overseas online casinos, about 1.97 million currently, wagering roughly JPY 1.24 trillion a year. Legal betting is dominated by public racing, takarakuji, toto and the pachinko sector.

3.5% of 27,145 respondents aged 15 to 79 had used an online casino (NPA, 2025); more than 40% of users did not know it was illegal.

Japan's mobile and social game market was valued at about JPY 1.45 trillion in 2023 (Statista), and public betting products sell mostly through smartphone apps.

There are no legal online casino operators. Public bodies hold statutory monopolies over racing, toto and takarakuji; MGM Osaka is the only approved casino resort.

Timeline: how Japan got here

1. 1907Penal Code Articles 185 and 186 criminalize gambling, habitual gambling and running a gambling place for profit
2. 2016-12IR Promotion Act passed, opening the way to land-based casinos inside integrated resorts
3. 2018-07IR Implementation Act and the Basic Act on Measures against Gambling Addiction enacted
4. 2020-01Casino Regulatory Commission established
5. 2023-04Osaka IR area plan (MGM Resorts and Orix) approved by the national government
6. 2025-03NPA survey estimates 3.37 million online casino users and JPY 1.24 trillion in annual bets
7. 2025-06Act No. 76 of 2025 bans presenting and promoting illegal online gambling to people in Japan
8. 2025-09Amendment enters into force on 25 September; MIC publishes revised illegal-information guidelines
9. 2026NPA reports 317 people subject to enforcement action for online gambling in 2025, the most since 2018

Outlook

Enforcement will keep tightening. The government has said it will exhaust measures short of ISP blocking before considering it, because blocking raises constitutional secrecy-of-communications concerns, and it is pressing foreign licensing authorities and operators to geo-block Japanese residents. A second round of IR applications was signaled in 2025 but had not opened as of September 2026; MGM Osaka is scheduled to open in 2030. Periodic proposals to legalize betting on baseball and football have not produced legislation.

GameBridge and Japan

Not served by GameBridge. Real-money online gambling is prohibited in Japan and promotion to Japanese residents is unlawful, so no GameBridge brand may accept players located in Japan.

Japan is excluded by GameBridge geo-controls by default: IP, device and payment-country checks block registration and play from Japan, and no Japanese-language marketing pages are published for real-money brands. This page exists so compliance teams can confirm the position quickly, including the 25 September 2025 rules that treat affiliate and social-media promotion as illegal information. Brands that use the Japanese site locale for other markets keep Japan on the exclusion list.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and review

Reviewed against the sources below on 11 September 2026. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with local counsel before launch.

• オンラインカジノを利用した賭博は犯罪です (Gambling through online casinos is a crime) — National Police Agency of Japan, accessed 2026-09-11
• Results of public comments on the revised Guideline related to Article 26 of the Information Distribution Platform Act (countermeasures against illegal online casinos) — Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, accessed 2026-09-11
• ギャンブル等依存症対策基本法 (Basic Act on Measures against Gambling Addiction), consolidated text — e-Gov Law Search, Government of Japan, accessed 2026-09-11
• Gaming Law 2025 – Japan: Trends and Developments — Chambers and Partners, accessed 2026-09-11
• Japan's Online Gamblers Wagering Over ¥1 Trillion a Year — Nippon.com, accessed 2026-09-11
• Japan sees 317 online gambling enforcement actions in 2025, highest in seven years — Focus Gaming News, accessed 2026-09-11
• MGM Osaka construction advances, Japan reportedly preparing new IR licensing — Yogonet, accessed 2026-09-11
• Mobile gaming in Japan – statistics and facts — Statista, accessed 2026-09-11

Regulatory summaries are provided for orientation only and are not legal advice. Licensing requirements change; we validate them with you during scoping.