By KEITARO NISHIZAKI/ Staff Writer
February 20, 2024 at 19:00 JST
A video from the Dora Mah-jongg site (Captured from Dora Mah-jongg site)
In a first, police have arrested the operators of an online mah-jongg site that was set up more than a decade ago on suspicion of providing a venue for illegal gambling.
Four men and three women between ages 20 and 50, including Randall Aaron Asher, 36, an American living in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, were arrested by Kyoto prefectural police and other departments.
According to officers in the cyber investigative unit, the seven are suspected of operating between March and December 2023 a membership site called Dora Mah-jongg, which is administered by a computer system owned by a company located on the Isle of Man off the coast of Britain.
The suspects collected money from six members as a fee for using the online site for gambling purposes, which is illegal in Japan.
According to sources, Asher has admitted to the allegation, saying he cooperated with the others to operate the site for mah-jongg gambling.
Police sources said Dora Mah-jongg was opened from around 2011 and collected between 10 and 15 percent of winnings from participants as the fee for use of the gambling place.
The site had about 74,000 members and has collected a total of about 2.3 billion yen ($15.3 million).
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