In an effort to step up their game when it comes to cracking down on online gambling, Tokyo police have arrested two men for “assisting habitual gambling” during their employment at a payment gateway company. This was not a case of a licensed provider offering free casino games that pay real money, because even in such a situation, customers should always err on the side of caution when unsure. But according to this particular report, this duo partook in illicit online gambling practices, where over a dozen Japanese customers were duped into a sequence of financial transactions.
Accused of engaging in a number of payments between July 2021 and July 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has worked around the clock to apprehend the duo, which to date have defrauded at least 18 people. Despite shutting their operation down in July 2022, reports show that the pair handled billions of Yen which enabled domestic customers make payments to foreign online casinos. In exchange, they earned over 2.1 billion Japanese Yen, which is equivalent to around 22 Australian dollars.
Shinya Tokita and Yoshiaki Maeda, both 42 years old, have become the first online casino settlement agents to be arrested on such charges in Japan. The suspects had allegedly started running an online payment service in 2020 and transferred money from Japan to three offshore online casinos they had created a partnership with.
A Ban on Online Gambling
Should prosecutors collect enough evidence to officially press charges, Tokita and Maeda both could potentially face up to five years in prison, which according to Amnesty could be pretty hardcore. As things stand right now, Japanese Police have been increasing their efforts to crack down on online gambling, while operators and individuals have been lobbying for its legislation. At the present time, the Japanese government has repeatedly stressed that online gambling remains highly illegal within the country.
Anonymous Crime Reporting System Updated
As of October 1st this year, Japan’s national police have rolled out a new update to their anonymous crime reporting system that will make it substantially easier for authorities when it comes to gathering information about illegal online gambling operations.
As part of its continuous effort in combatting online gambling, Japan has increased their bounty when submitting an anonymous crime reports from 100,000 Yen (AUD 1,043) to a noteworthy 1 million Yen (AUD 10,442).
Initially designed to gather intelligence related to child prostitution and human trafficking, the system was then upgraded to cover gang-related offences, firearm and drug incidents, and child abuse. Its most recent update includes the option of reporting forms of online fraud and/or illegal gambling in Japan.