Police Claim to Block Over 10,000 Online Gambling Sites Throughout 2023

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - National Police Chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo announced that the police have registered 2,278 cases related to online gambling throughout 2023. He released the report in the year-end press conference at the police headquarters in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Wednesday, Dec. 27.

He explained that so far this year, the police had frozen at least 1,229 bank accounts of the perpetrators and blocked more than 10,000 gambling sites in tandem with the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo). 

“In cooperation with the Kominfo Ministry, we have blocked 10,056 online gambling sites,” Listyo said.

He further outlined cases in Bali, Riau, and Jakarta. According to the police chief, the authorities blocked eight sites, arrested 46 suspects, and froze 19 bank accounts worth Rp150 billion in Bali.

In Riau, the police managed to shut down two sites and caught one suspect who owned assets worth Rp57.7 billion in an account that was later blocked.

Listyo went on to mention that the police had named 12 suspects in the online gambling case in Jakarta. Of the suspects, 20 accounts with assets totaling Rp6 billion had been frozen.

In early October this year, the National Police spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan said his institution has been working with the Kominfo Ministry since 2022, to combat online gambling, which has the potential to divide national unity.