Indonesia shut 380k online bet sites since Oct: govt

Nov 22, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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Indonesia has taken down 380,000 online gambling sites in just one month, amid a campaign to eliminate such trade from the Southeast Asia nation.

That is according to Meutya Hafid, communication and digital affairs minister, speaking at a Thursday press conference in Jakarta, according to a report by the country’s ANTARA news agency.

Such work was supported by blocking of bank accounts the authorities identified as linked to online gambling

The minister was cited as saying: “If we count from October 20, or the start of the new government,” the number of sites closed “has reached around 380,000.”

From November 4 – when what was termed in the report the government’s ‘online gambling eradication desk’ was formed – up to Thursday (November 21), a total of 104,819 sites related to online gambling had been taken down.

She said that since November 4, that unit had submitted 651 requests to block bank accounts connected to online gambling.

At Thursday’s press conference, a senior official of Indonesia’s central bank said the institution would freeze any bank accounts identified as “affiliated” with online gambling, and do so “in cooperation with payment service providers, both banks and non-banks”.

The report said 7,500 accounts had been frozen so far for that reason, and that the aim was to eliminate the trade.

The story cited Thursday comments by Juda Agung, deputy governor of Bank Indonesia: “Payment service providers, both banks and non-banks, must have fraud detection systems [in place] to identify accounts used for online gambling transactions and other fraud.”

The new government of President Prabowo Subianto was installed last month in the Muslim-majority country.

In April, before the departure from power of President Joko Widodo, Indonesia had announced it was setting up a multi-ministry and multi-agency task force to address online gambling.

It had been reported that Interpol would also be asked to help with cross-border cases.

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