Boy band member referred to prosecutors over illegal gambling
Tokyo police on Monday sent papers on a member of boy band JO1 to prosecutors on allegations of engaging in illegal gambling on an online casino site.
Shion Tsurubo, 24, has admitted the allegation. He said he was not fully aware of the illegality of online gambling, according to investigative sources.
“I became obsessed with online gambling for a while because it’s so easy to access with a smartphone,” he was quoted as saying.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Tsurubo had deposited a total of about ¥15 million ($104,000) to an online casino site since December 2023.
Tsurubo said that he stopped accessing the site around August last year after learning from the news that gambling on online casino sites constituted a crime. He is believed to have incurred a net loss of about ¥7.1 million.
He is suspected of using his smartphone to access the foreign online casino site named K8 from Japan between May 31 and June 27 last year and playing roulette several times.
The MPD attached an opinion in favor of “strict punishment” in its papers to prosecutors, asking for an indictment.
It discovered Tsurubo’s involvement in online gambling through an investigation into the proceeds of crime from another case. It interviewed the boy band member earlier this year on a voluntary basis.
Tsurubo’s talent agency, Lapone Entertainment, announced on May 31 that he had used an online casino in the past. He was suspended from activities for 10 days.
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