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 President Prabowo Subianto has instructed police to prioritize the country’s ongoing war against online casino operators, with Jakarta claiming the sector has processed funds worth $59.3 billion since 2017.
The Indonesian media outlet Cakrawala reported that Prabowo told the National Police (Polri) to prioritize “three main tasks” in its law enforcement measures. Prabowo identified these as drug trafficking, smuggling, and online gambling.
The President addressed Polri during a visit to the agency’s Jakarta headquarters last week. Prabowo has stepped up the nationwide crackdown on online casinos launched by his predecessor, Joko Widodo, in 2023.
Polri officials also announced that between October 2024 and October 2025, it had uncovered 22 major money laundering rings. Officers say they have seized assets worth IDR 221.38 billion ($13.3 million) from the rings.
Indonesian President: Casino Crackdown Must Continue
The President was speaking as the country’s financial intelligence unit published data about the growing size of the illegal Indonesian online gambling sector.
The media outlet Detik reported that the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) stated its data shows that online gambling-related transactions in Indonesia over the past eight years reached the Rp 976.8 trillion ($59.3 billion) mark as of the end of June 2025.
The PPATK official Danang Tri Hartono said that gamblers and online casino operators have made at least 709 million transactions since 2017.
Danang added that the number of online gamblers in Indonesia is “increasing rapidly.” The PPATK says that 51,611 of these transactions were traced to accounts held by civil servants.
Prosecutors have charged thousands of central government and regional public officials with criminal offenses following police investigations.
Danang also said there had been an increase in the number of Indonesian online gamblers in the period 2023 to 2024.
In 2023, 3.79 million citizens used online casinos. That number rose to 9.78 million in 2024, according to the PPATK.
Total deposits made on online gambling platforms in those two years reached the IDR 51.3 trillion ($3,081,247,290) mark, he said.
Low-Income Earners More Likely to Gamble, Says Gov’t
Earlier this year, the PPATK said that citizens had made a cumulative total of 12.6 million deposits on online gambling platforms from e-pay wallets.
The value of these transactions now exceeds IDR 1.6 trillion ($96,101,280), the unit claims.
Last month, the country’s political and security ministry said that around 70% of illegal online casino users in Indonesia earn less than 5 million rupiah ($300) per month.
By many estimates, this puts gamblers’ incomes below the national average. The same ministry also claimed that “most” of these individuals were also welfare benefits recipients.
Jakarta has responded by cutting welfare payments to all households where individuals have been discovered using online casinos.
Courts across the country have also begun prosecuting young Instagram stars. Many influencers have used their accounts to promote online casino platforms.
Stars as young as 19 have been jailed. These include influencer Vienna Varella Angeli Parinussa, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Denpasar District last month.
