Group warns about surge in young online gambling addicts

The spread of online betting stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic has created a wave of young gambling addicts who are at risk of committing crimes to pay off their debts, a nonprofit organization said.

The Society Concerned about the Gambling Addiction is calling on the government to immediately tighten regulations on online gambling.

The NPO said the number of consultations regarding young gambling addicts has spiked since online betting took root during the pandemic, when people were encouraged to work at their computers from home.

“The bar has been lowered, and the number of young gambling addicts is only expected to rise in the years ahead,” the organization warned.

Japan, in principle, bans all forms of gambling, including casino games, except for government-managed betting on four types of races: horses, bicycles, motorcycles and motorboats.

It is also illegal for people in Japan to gamble through online casino sites operated overseas, even if the platforms are legal in their countries.

But as any regular pachinko player knows, there are ways to get around the regulations.

The society, which provides assistance to gambling addicts and their relatives, released the results of its study earlier than scheduled after a high-profile gambling addiction case dominated news headlines in March.

Ippei Mizuhara, a former interpreter for major league baseball star Shohei Ohtani, has been charged with bank fraud by unlawfully transferring $1.6 million (252.7 million yen) from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off gambling debts to an illegal bookmaker.

“Similar incidents on a smaller scale are occurring more frequently in Japan than before,” said Noriko Tanaka, head of the society.

The survey is based on 479 cases in which gambling addicts or their relatives attended counseling sessions with the society in 2023.

Of these cases, 78 percent of the addicts were in their 20s and 30s, up by 14 percentage points from 2019, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Consultations about online wagering, including sports bets, accounted for 20.3 percent of the cases, up by 16 points.

As for publicly-managed gambling, 28.0 percent of the cases were about motorboat races, up by 22.7 points, while those concerning bicycle races came to 18.2 percent, up by 15.5 points.

The study found that debts incurred by gambling addicts averaged 8.55 million yen in 2023.

The society said 28.2 percent of the consultations were about illicit acts, such as borrowing money from black-market lenders or stealing money from family members or companies.

Tanaka said the findings by a data analysis company and the government underline the urgent need to deal with online gambling addiction.

The findings showed that the number of accesses to illegal online betting sites jumped more than 100 times from 2018 to 2021.

For government-managed gambling sports, 70 to 90 percent of the revenues come from online wagering, according to the findings.

The society said legislation should be enacted to crack down on YouTubers and ads that promote illegal online casino sites and sports betting.

It also pointed out the potential harm to youths from publicly-managed gambling.

The society said novice gamblers can place bets through free points distributed online, and that underage viewers can freely watch such races on YouTube.