Japan has asked eight countries — including Malta, Curacao and Canada — to ban online casinos popular among Japanese players. This was done in June 2025 as part of Tokyo’s crackdown on illegal offshore gambling.

The countries and territories approached — Canada, Costa Rica, Georgia, Malta, Anjouan (Comoros), Curacao, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar — are known for online casino licensing and operations. According to Japanese officials, without their cooperation, domestic efforts to enforce gambling laws won’t work.

This follows Japan’s new law to curb illegal betting after a series of scandals involving high profile individuals using unauthorized gambling websites. The issue has become more urgent as recent data showed Japanese players bet ¥6.45 trillion (US$45 billion) on offshore sportsbooks in 2024 alone — a figure that shows the size of the shadow market and the limitations of current enforcement.

As the Vietnam News noted, Japanese lawmakers are now asking international partners to extend enforcement across borders.

Enforcement Won’t Be Easy

Tokyo’s plan faces big technical and legal hurdles:

  • Identifying user nationality is tricky with VPNs and anonymous accounts.
  • Legal issues will arise as not all jurisdictions are obliged to respond — and some may see the request as an overreach.

Many operators have the technical means to move infrastructure or circumvent restrictions so compliance will be hard to verify and maintain.

A Global Message

Japan’s move is more than a local policy change — it’s a signal to the entire industry. It raises big questions about how much control governments really have in a borderless digital world.

If these international restrictions happen they will be a template for other countries to regulate offshore gambling. If not Japan’s move will show the limits of national regulation in iGaming — a space where affiliates and operators have to adapt all the time.