Japanese Baseball Franchises: We’ll Ensure Players Aren’t Gambling Online

Japanese pro baseball franchises are hoping to avoid a repeat of 2025, a year that saw them mired in online gambling-related controversies.

Team executives say they are working to ensure their players and staff do not use web-based casinos, after “the professional baseball world was up in a wave” of public scrutiny, the Japanese media outlet JPrime reported.

Problems began to surface last year, on February 21, when the Orix Buffaloes announced the suspension of 30-year-old pitcher Taisuke Yamaoka over suspected gambling activities.

The Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) asked Orix to investigate. The franchise later discovered that Yamaoka had participated in an international poker tournament hosted by an overseas online casino.

Yamaoka said he was unaware that gambling on overseas casino platforms was a criminal offence. Japanese law prohibits online casino usage from Japanese territory.

The NPB responded by calling for all 12 pro franchises to investigate their staff. The probe unearthed online casino use at eight of the teams.

However, further controversy erupted after teams, prosecutors, and police agreed to grant anonymity to players and coaches who admitted their guilt voluntarily. Some of the players and staff members received minor fines, while in other cases, prosecutors dropped charges after cautioning the players.

Japanese Baseball: Gambling Crackdown

Orix fans complained that it was unfair that only Yamaoka’s case had been made public and that he alone had been punished with a suspension.

However, later in the year, the names of several other baseball stars who had gambled online were made public.

These included players who represent the Yomiuri Giants, the Saitama Seibu Lions, and the Chunichi Dragons.

But officials say they are doing their utmost to avoid further gambling-related problems ahead of the new season.

An Orix spokesperson said that the Osaka Prefectural Police is now “holding seminars for all managers, coaches, players, and staff.” These sessions “cover the illegality of online casinos,” the spokesperson explained.

“When we renew contracts, we issue written and verbal warnings to all players about what to be careful of during the off-season,” the spokesperson said.

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks team said it was conducting “regular compliance training.” It said this would “boost the understanding of all parties involved about the importance of complying with laws and regulations.”

A Giants official said: “We are working to prevent a recurrence and to raise awareness among our players and staff.”

Seibu said that its own training sessions include efforts to “raise awareness among players and team members about […] the illegality of online casinos.”

NPB’s Efforts

The NPB said that it is also making efforts to address the problem. “Ahead of the start of the season, we have created posters to raise awareness,” an NPB official said. “We have displayed these in the locker rooms, clubhouses, and the NPB offices of the 12 teams’ home stadiums.”

The official added that the NPB plans to include an awareness program at a special player training session for league rookies on January 9, 2026.

“We will continue to take necessary measures as we deem them appropriate,” the official concluded.

NPB preseason begins at the end of February. The regular season is slated to start in late March.

Late last year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department discovered 84 betting-related violations during its first simultaneous spot-check of 80 “just-for-fun” amusement casinos in the capital.