Indonesia Sets New Task Force to Fight Illegal Gambling

The Financial Services Authority, Analysis Center and the Financial Transaction reports are all coming together to respond to the need for better addressing the proliferation of illegal gambling in Indonesia.

The initiative is about to be launched at the behest of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which previously criticized social media platforms, including X, for allowing illegal gambling advertisements to target Indonesians.

Indonesia Pools Law Enforcement Efforts to Fight Illegal Gambling

The new task force will seek to collaborate with international law enforcement in areas it can, including Europol, hoping to bring responsible parties to justice. One of the biggest issues for Indonesia has remained finding an effective and efficient manner to prevent foreign operators from targeting Indonesia and walking away scot-free.

The Ministry wants to ensure that there are ramifications for operators that it has been able to identify and pursue enforcement action against.

Commenting on the future task force, the Ministry’s information and public communications director Usman Kansong has outlined the remit of the organization as well as outlined individual responsibilities for each participating agency:

“Kominfo will oversee the digital space, OJK will manage accounts PPATK will handle fund flows, and the police will carry out arrest and investigation duties.”

Ministry’s information and public communications director Usman Kansong

In the meantime, the Ministry has already warned social media not to become complicit with the advertising of illegal gambling that is pushed onto consumers by bad actors. With major sports events looming, Indonesia wants to continue its age-long fight against illegal gambling.

A Multi-Pronged Approach to Root out Illegal Gambling

Part of this has been an attempt to target and block individual gambling websites, which has proven too demanding and resource-intensive.

Yet,  in the lack of a proper regulatory framework to address the proliferation of offshore gambling, the Ministry is now going to change tact and work to shut down operators across social media through stricter law enforcement, as well as international collaboration, as well as take action against the websites themselves.

“We from the Ministry of Communication and Information are fully determined. At the beginning of the week, I gathered all our teams at Kominfo to work together to eradicate online gambling,” added Minister of Communication Budi Arie.

In the meantime, South Korea has led a sting operation against thousands of players and organizers of illegal gambling. The country has apprehended close to 3,000 people, including more than 1,000 teenagers, some of whom have been found guilty of organizing illegal gambling or promoting such websites to peers and the general public.