Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet approved on Friday a basic strategy to battle online gambling addiction that includes strengthening crackdowns on payment collection agencies and individuals or companies, known as affiliates, who promote online casinos and earn a commission for each player they successfully refer to a site.

The plan also calls for conducting awareness-raising activities for businesses and encouraging them to take appropriate measures, such as prohibiting the display of online casino advertisements and online casino introduction sites. New social media advertisements that remind people online casino gambling is illegal will also be introduced.

“There are strong indications the number of people accessing online casino sites is increasing, leading to the accompanying problem of addiction," said Yoshitaka Ito, the minister in charge of measures to combat gambling addiction, at a news conference following the Cabinet meeting.