Tim Alper is a journalist who covers betting news and regulation for CasinoBeats. He joined the CasinoBeats team in May 2025. He reports on breaking news and developments in the world of betting, casinos, and...
Read Full BioIndonesian administrators are checking police officers’ cellphones to ensure they do not place bets online as part of Jakarta’s ongoing gambling crackdown.
The Indonesian media outlet Poso News reported that senior police officers from the Professional and Security Section (Propam) checked junior staff members’ phones after a roll call at Poso Police Station on October 14.
Officials said the inspection would “maintain the discipline and integrity” of police officers and other staff members.
A Propam executive said that the inspection was the result of an order from the National Police to prevent and suppress regulatory violations, “especially those related to a hedonistic lifestyle, online gambling, and negative behavior on social media platforms.”
Police Officers Subject to Spot Checks
The executive said: “We want to ensure that no members of the Poso Police are involved in online gambling […] or other behavior that could tarnish the image of the National Police as an institution.”
As part of the inspection, Propam and the senior officers checked apps, digital financial transactions, and employees’ social media activities to look for evidence of gambling.
The executive said that inspectors found “no violations,” and added: “All of our employees were very cooperative with the process.”
Police forces in other parts of the nation are set to perform similar checks in the coming days. Inspectors will then perform unannounced spot checks on a semi-regular basis.
The nation’s prison service has also recently announced the launch of similar checks on guards and other personnel.
Pensioner Loses Benefits as Crackdown Continues
Jakarta launched a major crackdown on online gambling in 2023. This has since intensified as the popularity of illegal gambling sites continues to rise in Indonesia.
The government has suspended hundreds of thousands of benefits payments to households where it has identified online gambling activities.
Last week, the Indonesian media outlet Tribun News reported that an unnamed grandmother in South Sulawesi was the latest to lose her social assistance payments after officials identified online gambling-related activities on her bank accounts.
Government officials have admitted that, in many cases, “elderly citizens or schoolchildren do not use online gambling sites.”
However, their relatives “borrow their phones or use their bank accounts to make online gambling-related transactions.”
A South Sulawesi-based welfare services employee added: “If one family member commits a crime, the entire family is implicated. If the […] system detects online gambling, it automatically orders payments to stop.”
Last year, officials said that they had found evidence that over half a million aid recipients had used online gambling platforms.
Data from the nation’s commercial banks showed that these recipients spent a combined total of IDR 957 billion ($57,650,637) on 7.5 million online gambling transactions.
In Palopo, another welfare official said that local authorities are powerless to act, with the Ministry of Social Affairs having a final say on benefits.
He explained: “We provide social welfare support to households, not to individuals. If one member of the household gambles online, welfare payments to the entire household will stop.”
