Japan pushes to legalize sports betting, opposition grows

Japan's government is pushing to legalize sports betting, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on 7 June 2022, with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) planning an expert conference the following month¹. The ministry has in mind baseball, football and basketball as the sports that would be covered¹.

Under the plan reported by Yomiuri, companies that gather sports data would buy match data and footage from leagues or clubs and supply it to betting operators, which would use it to set odds¹. Participants would bet on their phones while watching the game¹. METI and the Japan Sports Agency plan to hold a "Sports Future Development Council" with experts around July 2022 to begin full discussions on allowing sports betting¹. The stated aim is to raise broadcast rights fees and advertising revenue and so invigorate the sports industry¹.

Japan currently permits gambling only on horse racing, bicycle racing, motorcycle racing, motorboat racing and sports lotteries, through special laws that create exceptions¹. According to METI, Japan is the only Group of Seven country that does not allow sports betting¹. Japanese sports are already bet on overseas, with stakes reaching 5 trillion to 6 trillion yen a year, or roughly 50 trillion to 60 trillion South Korean won¹.

Yomiuri reported that allowing sports betting could cause match fixing and gambling addiction, and predicted strong opposition from the sports world and other sectors¹.

Separate legal commentary published in 2025 records that in June 2022 a newspaper reported a METI study group had made a draft proposal for legalizing sports betting and that the Japan Sports Agency established the Sports Future Development Council². The same commentary states that in 2021 the Financial Times reported the Japanese government had secretly begun discussions on legalizing sports betting, covering baseball and football, and that the Japan Association of New Economy, a lobbying body represented by Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani, published a proposal for legalizing sports betting in December 2020³.

What it means for players

As of the reporting, nothing had changed in law. Online gambling remains prohibited under the Penal Code, and the commentary states it will be illegal to conduct such activities within Japan even after the Integrated Resort laws². Betting online is permitted only for land-based horse, bicycle, motorcycle and motorboat races and lotteries run by the national government, municipal bodies and other public sectors, including the toto/BIG sports promotion lottery².

The commentary records that a user may commit a gambling crime even when using an online casino that is legitimately operated outside Japan². Penalties set out in that commentary are a fine of not more than JPY500,000 or a petty fine for simple gambling, imprisonment of not more than three years for habitual gambling, and imprisonment of not less than three months but not more than five years for running a place for gambling or organizing a group of habitual gamblers for profit².

Enforcement has continued. The commentary records arrests in September 2023 of seven people allegedly involved in a settlement agency business for an offshore online gaming site, three arrests in September 2024 over money collected from about 10,000 people who took part in overseas online gambling, and 57 people referred to prosecutors in November 2024 for allegedly gambling via offshore online casinos using cryptocurrencies². Since February 2025, several television comedians and professional and amateur athletes have been referred to prosecutors for similar offenses².

What happens next

METI and the Japan Sports Agency planned to hold the Sports Future Development Council around July 2022 to begin discussions on allowing sports betting¹. No decision, bill or timetable beyond that conference is reported in the sources. The commentary notes that the Basic Act on Countermeasures Against Gambling Addiction was amended on 18 June 2025, taking effect on 25 September 2025².