In a big crime bust to the gambling operations, the Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested three persons over money laundering activities linked to the online casino business. The arrests of suspects aged between 40 and 41 underscore a perpetual problem of Japan’s law enforcers in the fight against cases of illicit gambling, even against the backdrop of the nation’s preparation to host Japan’s first integrated resort or casino soon.
The Japanese sources reported that the police investigation revealed that about 4.9 billion yen ($35 million) had been passed through the suspects’ bank accounts. Such cash is Estimated to have come from over 10,000 people who engaged themselves in online gambling abroad.
The arrests also give a strong signal to Japanese Internet users that online gambling is still prohibited in Japan regardless of where the owners of online gambling sites or Internet service providers may have legal and licensed operations. This case highlights the rather soft legal position of gambling in Japan, where pachinko is kind of a legal grey area, and at the same time, the government continues to plan on integrated resorts with legal casinos.
The suspects, all company executives from Osaka Prefecture, reportedly masked their criminality through over 140,000 individual transactions to their accounts starting in March this year. These transactions refer to bets made to an overseas online casino, Yous Casino according to the investigators amounting to 4.9 billion yen.
In a more intricate bid to escape recognition, it is alleged the suspects camouflaged the online casino ventures under contracts ostensibly for the sale of merchandise or other services apart from games. They say that about 2.9 billion yen is paid to gambling participants as their win and the rest of the 2 billion yen is profit to the casino business operators. These three suspects allegedly were paid between 1.5% and 2.0% of these profits for their part in the scam.
This case illustrates the problem of police struggle to catch up with the growth of internet-based gambling. With time and as businesses develop different means of undertaking transnational business, the unlawful authorities are also changing their methods of operation and have been able to exploit legal means.
This is especially timely when viewed within the context of gambling in Japan. For the first integrated resort casino in Osaka, which is set to begin in 2030, anti-gambling crime and social impacts are emerging as an issue of concern.
The government has taken step to address these issues such as preceding entry fees for Japanese citizens and residents who wish to gamble in the future integrated resorts. However, the cases like this recent money laundering scheme show the fact that more and more Illegal gambling operations are existing at the present despite the attempts made.
The case of police arrests of some individuals in Osaka may lead to criticism of the government to provide better provisions for the prevention and prohibition of online gambling as well as review its policies as regards the regulation of financial transactions in relation to what may be ascertained as unlawful gambling. It also provides concerns by which the present measures against the problem gambling the vulnerable person frequenting from being exploited by the operators of illegitimate betting.
While Japan remains rather skeptical about the legalization of casino gambling through integrated resorts, cases like this shed some light on the issues that the country is facing. The primary societal contradiction for Japanese authorities will be to weigh possible economic boons resulting from a licensed casino sector against the risks of jeopardizing citizens’ safety and stability.
This may be so because the Osaka police managed to investigate this large-scale money laundering operation and bring it to justice successfully. At the same it stresses the need to come up with international consortial means for fighting cross- national gambling crimes, which become more and more frequent, while the use of world web space for evasion from justice by casinos mafias intensifies.
It will indeed remain under considerable scrutiny from the casino business’s supporters and opponents as the case progresses in the legal process and during the investigation. As a result, it may open new perspectives in the development of the further gambling policies and regulation in the Japan since the country tries to find the balance in the proper economic use of this sphere and the prevention of the negative consequences of gambling.
