A Japanese civil servant has had his pay docked for repeatedly visiting illegal online gambling websites while on duty.
Kanaloco, the Japanese media outlet, reported that the unnamed public official also sold the private data of his co-worker.
The Kanagawa Prefecture government announced in an official release. It will reduce the man’s pay by 10% for the next six months.
The official is a 30-year-old male employee of the Environment and Agriculture Bureau in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The disciplinary board of the prefecture explained. The civil servant had repeatedly placed bets on online casino platforms during work hours using his smartphone.
After investigators discovered he had been gambling at work since November 2023, the board stated. The staffer received a summary order on April 26 of the previous year.
They suspended the man from his duties for six months. Yet, the board explained that he began gambling at work again five days after returning from suspension.
The employee repeatedly lied to his superiors during his suspension, with whom he was in regular contact.
He told senior bureau officials that he was no longer gambling. In reality, he continued placing bets during his suspension, the board added.
The man also leaked his colleague’s personal information to unregistered loan sharks. He did this to raise more money to fuel his gambling habits.
Officials explained that the man had placed bets worth at least 50,000 yen (or $350) on online slot machine games.
A spokesperson for the prefecture said that this incident has shaken the public trust in the prefecture. It is truly regrettable. They would like to offer their deepest apologies to residents.
Nonetheless, the rules governing the behavior of civil service officials remain famously strict. They compromise a comprehensive code of ethics that expressly prohibits gambling.
