Tim Alper is a journalist who covers betting news and regulation for CasinoBeats. He joined the CasinoBeats team in May 2025. He reports on breaking news and developments in the world of betting, casinos, and...
Read Full BioIllegal online casino promoters continue to target fans of Japanese anime with a campaign of taking over official websites.
Their latest target is Hot Spring Fairy Hakone-chan, an anime title also known as Onsen Yosei Hakone-chan, which aired from October to December 2015.
The anime was based on a hit 2012 online manga (comic) series by Daisuke Yui. It tells the tale of Hakone, a hot spring-dwelling spirit who takes human form.
The production company behind the 2015 anime adaptation, Asahi Production, took to X to warn that it had “confirmed the existence of a fake website posing as the official site for Hot Spring Fairy Hakone-chan.”
“The site in question is in no way affiliated with our company or the production group that worked on the series,” Asahi Production said.
Japanese Anime: Casino Takeover
The production company warned that accessing this “fake website could result in the unauthorized acquisition of personal information,” and warned fans “not to access it or enter any personal information on the site.”
CasinoBeats visited the website in question and saw several entries in the “blog post” menu that contained online casino links. One invited visitors to “enjoy online casinos while relaxing in the hot springs.” It also promises site visitors “no-deposit bonuses.”
Other posts state that Hakone, the eponymous heroine of the series, is “ now playing online casino games, too.”
The Japanese media outlet Otakuma reported that the site now contained elements that were being “misused” to lure users onto online casino websites.
Another Japanese media outlet, Otacreate, reported that the website’s domain registration expired in or around 2019. However, in 2021, it appears that online casino promoters bought the domain. They then replaced it with a WordPress blog “disguised as the official anime website,” Otacreate wrote.
The media outlet said that its researchers found that an unnamed “third party” was listed as the domain’s owner. The third party listed an address in the city of Kumamoto.
Other Anime Sites Also Affected
Otacreate wrote that anime fans have reported “many similar problems” in recent months.
Gambling operators or their affiliates wait for site administrators to fail to renew a domain registration. They then acquire the domain name and “reuse” it to create clones of the original site.
In July, gambling advertisers took over a domain once belonging to the makers of the 2010 anime title Kaitou Reinya, also known as Phantom Thief Reinya.
They also successfully took control of a site once used by the producers of the Rokka no Yuusha (Rokka Braves of The Six Flowers) series.
This year has seen gambling promoters target older smartphone games, such as the role-playing (RPG) title Blue Reflection Sun. The game was launched in 2023 but discontinued in 2024, with the website taken offline shortly thereafter. Again, online gambling operators appear to have moved in quickly, repurposing the site to promote online casinos.
DMM Games, the developer of Blue Reflection Sun, responded by issuing an official warning to the public. The firm urged people to “be cautious” if accessing the site.
