Police in Japan have arrested the operators of a mah-jongg gambling site, including a US national. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Police arrest seven

Police in Japan have made history by arresting the country’s first online casino operator, with a US citizen among the seven taken into custody.

arrested the men and women on suspicion of gambling racketeering

According to the Japan Times on Wednesday, Kyoto Prefectural Police (KPP) arrested the men and women on suspicion of gambling racketeering.

The ages of the suspects range from the twenties to forties and include US national Randall Aaron Asher. Asher, 36, is an employee of Dora Mahjong, the online mah-jongg site authorities suspect of providing a platform for illegal gambling.

Officers in KPP’s cyber investigative division suspect the seven, including Asher, of operating the site between March and December 2023.

Cyber police on the case

According to The Asahi Shimbun, the alleged illegal site, which is still live online, is registered to a company in the Isle of Man, UK. The arrests were made on Sunday after KPP’s cyber probe arm conducted cyber patrols. Investigators stated the Dora Mahjong site has over 70,000 registered members, and that the suspects made commissions of 10% to 15% from their customers’ winnings.

Investigators estimate customers deposited around ¥2.3bn ($15.3m) into the mah-jongg platform since its launch in 2011.

Police arrested the seven accused of involvement in the site on “an initial charge of allowing six Japanese customers to gamble” on mah-jongg online between March and December 2023 while collecting commissions from the players.

Three of the suspects, including Asher, whose address is listed as the city of Urayasu in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, admitted involvement in doramahjong.com.

The other four suspects, however, contested some of the allegations, claiming that while they participated in running the mah-jongg platform, they did not think the operations they performed were illegal.

While the suspects maintained the site is lawful, online gambling is illegal in Japan.

Gamblers face charges

The KPP stated its investigators are also currently looking at hitting the site’s users with potential charges.

Media reports cite data from Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) that reveals police have arrested 307 individuals for online gambling-related offenses between 2020 and 2022.

As the central coordinating law enforcement agency for the Japanese police system, the NPA stressed the legal risks of online gambling and urged “the public to exercise caution.”