Japan has always been very strict when it comes to gambling – the only legal forms there are horse racing and the state lottery and neither of those carry the allure of online casinos.
There are not only no online casinos in Japan, but no live ones either. However, the Japanese government is considering bringing in controlled and heavily-regulated on- and offline gambling as soon as 2010.
What does this mean for the industry? Well, Japan is currently Asia's richest nation with the highest GDP (gross domestic product) in the Asian continent. In fact, it is thought that their GDP per capita exceeds that of the US. A population of 128m means that Japan could be a big boost to the online casino market.