Online Gambling Addiction Becoming Serious Issue in Japan

From Jiji

January 5 2024

TOKYO – Gambling addiction through online casinos is becoming a serious problem in Japan, particularly after the COVID-19 crisis began in 2020. 

The number of requests for related consultations received by the Society Concerned about the Gambling Addiction, a public interest incorporated association in Tokyo, has increased 11-fold in five years.

Some people picked up “yami baito” illegal part-time jobs offered online, which are also becoming a social problem, to obtain money for gambling, according to the association.

“I feel a sense of crisis over the current situation in which many people are addicted to gambling and commit crimes,” said Noriko Tanaka, head of the association. “Illegal online casinos must be eradicated.”

Of those who sought advice from the association between January and November 2024, 91 said they had family members who gambled at online casinos. Such respondents numbered only eight in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.