Indonesia: Government Develops National Action Plan to Eradicate Online Gambling
The government has developed a national action plan to eradicate online gambling, with the primary step being blocking accounts used for illegal transactions.
This effort involves collaboration between the Ministry of Communication and Digital (Kemkomdigi), the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), and the police.
Minister of Communication and Digital, Meutya Viada Hafid, emphasized that terminating account access is a more effective deterrent.
“Content can be easily recreated, but accounts are difficult to reopen once blocked,” she said.
From October 20, 2024, to July 28, 2025, Kemkomdigi has blocked nearly 2.5 million pieces of negative content, approximately 1.7 million of which were related to online gambling.
Meutya stated that the data was obtained from a crawling system and public reports.
However, she acknowledged that gambling sites are still rampant because perpetrators are skilled at disguising their content. “Banks must also be asked to be stricter so that perpetrators cannot create new accounts,” she stressed.
He believes the synergy between blocking content and accounts makes eradication efforts more effective.
The Ministry of Social Affairs is also taking action against social assistance recipients involved in online gambling. Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf stated that more than 200,000 recipients had their assistance stopped because they were suspected of using the funds for gambling.
“We found more than 600,000 social assistance recipients suspected of also playing online gambling. Of those 600,000, we have stopped providing social assistance to more than 200,000,” he explained.
He added that the social assistance quota was not reduced, but rather diverted.
“So it wasn’t eliminated, but diverted to those who are more deserving,” he said.
This data was obtained from matching 30 million social assistance recipients’ ID numbers with 9 million online gamblers’ ID numbers, which were investigated by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) with the permission of President Prabowo Subianto.
Meanwhile, the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri) seized Rp90.6 billion from 235 accounts linked to three online gambling sites and named three suspects and one fugitive.
The Head of Sub-Directorate 2 of the Cyber Crimes Directorate of the Indonesian National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Senior Commissioner Ferdy Saragih, stated that as of August, his team had discovered more than 5,000 suspected accounts.
“All of them are suspected of being linked to online gambling activities,” he said.
He emphasized that the total funds frozen and confiscated reached IDR 154.3 billion.
“We will continue to take action against accounts linked to online gambling. This demonstrates our commitment to ridding the digital space of illegal practices,” said Ferdy.*
