Japan police bust online gamblers for first time using crypto ‘tracking tool’

Japan police are now actively arresting users of overseas online casinos using a crypto “tracking tool” — a first for their government. On November 26 (JST) the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division referred 10 men and women to the prosecutor’s office, including a 35-year old fire department worker from Tokyo, adding more potential arrests to the 57 made since September.  

As if life wasn’t hard enough for those trying to survive in Japan’s crumbling economy, the state is now making active arrests of non-violent individuals for merely gambling on overseas crypto casinos.

Nikkei reports that in a national first, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Security Division has been identifying gamblers via a crypto “tracking tool.” While regulated gambling is legal in Japan for some activities such as horse racing, unauthorized gambling is a punishable offense.

Tokyo Fire Department worker burned by police for online gaming

Since September, 57 arrests have been made across 24 prefectures, and many unsuspecting men and women have been caged for using their money as they wish, accessing overseas crypto casinos. In total, 130 such gamblers have now been identified across the archipelago, and the state plans to crack down on the remaining cases one after another.

The casinos, such as sportsbet.io, pictured above, are known to advertise themselves as safe, fun, and secure, and “fully available in Japanese.” Other sites mentioned in the report include Vera & John casino and BitCasino.

One of the ten individuals recently reported is a 35-year-old fire department worker from Kodaira City, Tokyo. The ten men and women referred to the prosecutor’s office on the 26th are in their 20s to 60s.

DMM hack still unsolved, Japanese public questions cop crackdown

With Japan’s elderly trying to eek by on pensions that are below the poverty line in many developed nations, and inflation raging rampant, some are wondering why the state is taking such a hard line on 60-year-olds trying to survive by gambling a little crypto.

Back in May, Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin was plundered for 4,502.9 BTC, and the attack has since been blamed on that murky, catch-all boogeyman in crypto known as the North Korean “Lazarus Group.” But the $305 million-dollar pilfer remains shrouded in mystery, as does its big brother, the $532 million-dollar Coincheck hack in 2018.

If one didn’t know better, one might suspect some state-approved money laundering was going on.

“We would like you to use this tracking tool to identify the hacker who stole 58 billion yen worth of NEM from Coincheck and the hacker who stole 48.2 billion yen worth of Bitcoin from DMM Bitcoin,” one Japanese account on X wrote, following news of the arrests.

Commenters heartily agreed, emphasizing: “You should catch the hackers before gamblers! Don’t you think?” Another user said of illegal online gambling: “The police do it, too.” Yet another suspected cops were actually finding out who the people were via their KYC information registered with the sites, via inquiry, and mentioned that if users registered under a foreign ID and different name, it would be harder to prosecute.

From Zero to Web3 Pro: Your 90-Day Career Launch Plan