Japan Turns to UK App to Fight Gambling Addiction Rise

Last January, The Japan Times painted a concerning picture regarding the situation of online gambling addiction in the country. 

Then, the Society Concerned about Gambling Addiction signaled a massive 11-fold rise in consultation requests for the 12 months ending in December 2024.

One year later, things haven’t evolved in a positive direction in East Asia’s island country, which has reached a population of roughly 122,774,000 people as of January 1, 2026, and it is getting ready to receive new bids for casino resorts. 

However, a new app created by UK developers is looking to help fix the problem by limiting access to gambling sites and better curbing illegal gambling and gambling addiction overall.

Gamban Targets Illegal Ads

With recent crackdown efforts to eradicate illegal gambling ads simply not doing enough, gambling-blocking software company Gamban has decided to bring its own contribution by launching an online platform aimed at Japanese users.

The special software blocks access to gambling sites and apps across all devices. The list currently includes over 360,000 domains and apps, with around 300 more websites added on a daily basis, as explained by Gamban co-founder Matt Zarb-Cousin.

It also cleverly shows users how much time and money they would save by saying no to gambling, while providing links to various services in their jurisdictions. 

Over 100,000 Active App Users Worldwide

Nearly 500,000 global users have already registered, and 100,000 have begun actively using the new service’s features. 

The rapid spread has been enabled by strong support from state-regulated regulators and operators in Ohio, as well as in a few European countries, including the UK, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands. 

Here, the app has been subsidized and made available for free, given that gambling addicts are usually deeply in debt and would not be able to cover the costs of the app (JPY 5,250 or $33,48 per year) themselves.

Zarb-Cousin also addressed the main issue regarding the new software, now translated to Japanese: “The real difficulty comes with making (the software) difficult to remove, because obviously people are going to try to bypass it.”

The rapid spread has been enabled by strong support from state-regulated regulators and operators in Ohio, as well as in a few European countries, including the UK, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands. 
Here, the app has been subsidized and made available for free, given that gambling addicts are usually deeply in debt and would not be able to cover the costs of the app (JPY 5,250 or $33,48 per year) themselves.