How Comedians Like Reiwa Roman’s Kuruma Takahira Fueled the Growth of Online Casinos

They mistakenly perceived it as not being illegal

The online casino scandal has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry.

On February 15, M-1 champion Reiwa Roman updated their YouTube channel, where Kuruma Takahira (30) admitted to engaging in online casino gambling and issued an apology. On the 19th, he announced:

“In order to take this as an opportunity to discipline myself, I have decided to voluntarily suspend my entertainment activities for the time being, starting today.”

In his apology video, Kuruma explained that he was invited to participate in online gambling by a college acquaintance at the end of 2019.

“I was told that sending money from an overseas account to play at an online casino was not illegal.”

He further stated:

“At the time, there were advertisements for such websites on the internet. Seeing those ads also contributed to my misunderstanding that it was not illegal, and so I engaged in online casino gambling.”

According to him, he participated in online gambling for about a year, until the end of 2020.

At Yoshimoto Kogyo, comedians Daitaku’s Yoshimoto Dai and 9-Bangai Retro’s Nakamura★Shun has already been voluntarily questioned by the Metropolitan Police Department and announced they would suspend activities until the facts are confirmed. Following this, it was reported that about 10 Yoshimoto comedians, including Kuruma, had been questioned.

Even if an online casino operates in a country where gambling is legal, accessing it from Japan to gamble is illegal.