Image: Caitlin Conner
A Japanese TV report has revealed a rapid rise in illegal sports betting, with bettors wagering on a wider range of domestic sporting events than ever before.
The Japanese broadcast giant Nippon Television wrote that, per its own investigations, traffic to some overseas popular sports gambling sites from Japan has seen “a rapid increase.” In some cases, visitor numbers from Japan are “approximately 10 times higher than in July 2024.”
Visiting overseas gambling sites and placing bets from Japanese territory is a criminal offense. A new law, currently being finalized by the government, will introduce jail sentences for habitual reoffenders.
Japanese Experts: Illegal Sports Betting Surges
Nippon TV said it investigated one of these sites, which offers betting on a range of Japanese sports.
The site, unnamed in the report, offers odds on the Japanese pro baseball league (NPB) and the Japanese High School Baseball Championship (Koshien).
The same site provides Japanese language services for betting. It also offers streaming services, allowing bettors to watch live NPB games.
These included the Yomiuri Giants vs Yokohama DeNA BayStars game held on August 24. Nippon Television wrote: “This baseball broadcast was produced by Nippon Television, and the site did not contact us in advance. So this was an unauthorized stream.”
Yomiuri Giants Fans at an NPB game. (Image: Chi-Hung Lin [CC BY-SA 2.0])
A Nippon Television reporter telephoned the site and was able to speak to “a person who spoke some broken Japanese.”
The site employee was reportedly “vague about whether allowing Japanese site visitors to bet on the site was illegal or not.”
The same employee also falsely claimed that the site had obtained the broadcaster’s permission to stream the game.
A ‘Malicious Operator’
The broadcaster quoted Hironori Inagaki, the Executive Director of the Sports Ecosystem Promotion Council, as saying that the site in question was “an extremely malicious operator.”
Inagaki claimed that the site has been expanding its presence in the “illegal market in Japan” in recent months.
The council believes that Japanese bettors spent a whopping 6.5 trillion yen ($44.16 billion) on illegal sports bets in 2025.
That figure could grow yet further this year, Inagaki suggested. Illegal domestic operators also continue to expand their range of services.
A commemorative Japanese train marking the 100th anniversary of the annual Japanese High School Baseball Championship. (Image: にぶさま[Nibusama] [CC BY-SA 4.0])
The rise in illegal sports betting is driving up the risk of match-fixing and gambling addiction, the council chief warned. Inagaki said: “The people who run illegal betting sites often work with criminal syndicates. They approach athletes and try to manipulate the results of matches. The risk of match-fixing is increasing worldwide.”
Inagaki added that many Japanese people who begin with sports gambling later go on to use online casino services.
Gambling Ad Fines Coming
Tokyo has responded by tightening regulations and imposing harsher penalties. A law that comes into force next month will criminalize advertising online casinos and illegal sports gambling platforms.
Website operators and social media platforms that allow casinos or sports betting sites to place ads will face fines and other punitive measures. Social media stars who promote gambling sites on their pages will also be fined.
Tokyo has also reached out to countries and territories that host online casinos. It has asked them to restrict access from Japanese IP addresses and refrain from providing services in Japanese.
Police, meanwhile, have cracked down on celebrities found using illegal casino apps. Earlier this month, a court in Tokyo fined the pop star Shion Tsurubo 100,000 yen ($675) for gambling at an online casino.
The star, a member of the all-male idol group JO1, gambled on roulette games via an overseas online casino site named K8 from Japanese territory on multiple occasions between December 2023 and June 2024.
The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has called on people who think they may be addicted to gambling to reach out to medical experts for help.
AloJapan.com