Indonesia steps up crackdown on online gambling after spate of gruesome deaths

He also asked all public figures, religious leaders and the general public to “monitor each other, and also report if there are any indications of online gambling”, admitting it was not easy to curb gambling due to its “cross-border nature”.

Gambling is a crime in Indonesia. Participants and organisers of gambling activities can get up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of 25 million rupiah (US$1,500), while distributors of online gambling software can get up to six years imprisonment and a 1 billion rupiah fine.

Indonesia last month established a multi-agency task force that will work with Interpol to rein in online gambling.

Indonesia’s communications ministry blocked over 1.9 million pieces of online content that promoted gambling from July 17, 2023 to May 21, as well as 5,000 bank accounts and e-wallets that were suspected of use in online gambling activities.

Fatal cases

A wave of gruesome deaths tied to online gambling has been making headlines in Indonesia over the past year, underlining the diverse socioeconomic backgrounds of the victims and the challenges of the task force.

Earlier this month, a policewoman in the East Java province’s Mojokerto regency burned her police officer husband alive after he spent the couple’s bonus salary on online gambling instead of buying necessities for their three-month old twins.

The case caught the attention of lawmakers, who used it as an example when questioning Communications Minister Budi Arie on the online gambling situation on Monday.

On Thursday, the army confirmed that one of its officers in south Sulawesi admitted to embezzling 876 million rupiah of his unit’s money to fund his online gambling addiction.

In December 2023, a member of the national police counterterrorism squad was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a driver to steal his car. He had used his brother’s money, some 92 million rupiah, to gamble online instead of buying a used car as requested by his brother.

Online gambling addiction also reportedly drove a police officer in Bali to pawn 11 rental vehicles last year.

Some gambling addicts have also committed suicide over mounting debt, including a member of the navy in Papua who killed himself in April after owing the bank and his friends a combined 819 million rupiah.

Agus Subiyanto, commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, told lawmakers on Wednesday that he would “take firm action” against any personnel involved in online gambling.

Online gambling has been one of the top five reasons for divorce in Indonesia since 2020, according to the nation’s statistics agency. Data from the directorate general of religious justice at Indonesia’s Supreme Court showed that gambling accounted for 0.26 per cent of some 408,000 divorces last year.

Economic losses

Online gambling has resulted in significant losses in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre estimated that online gamblers spent some 327 trillion rupiah (US$20 billion) in 2023, triple the amount in 2022.

“This money, when used for online gambling, has little added value. This money even goes to other countries, such as Myanmar or Cambodia. When it is used for the real sector, for shopping or for opening a business, the effect is greater, and it will have more economic value. That’s the downside of online gambling,” said Nailul Huda, digital economy director at Jakarta-based Center of Economic and Law Studies.

Online gambling has been enabled by the ease of getting loans from online lenders, who sometimes only require the borrower’s national identity cards to issue a loan, Huda says.

Huda also blamed social media platforms, which allow advertisements about online gambling, including those promoted by influencers.

In a report by online survey platform Populix released in February, nearly half of the some 1,000 respondents said they were exposed to online gambling ads on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

“It is true that if we shut down one site, a thousand others spring up. But we cannot also let online gambling run rampant. The government must tell the platforms that online gambling is illegal in Indonesia. So when they allow it to spread, they indirectly violate the rules in Indonesia,” Huda said.