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 BioThe overwhelming majority of Indonesian online casino users come from low-income families, the country’s political and security ministry (Kemenko Polkam) claims.
According to the media outlet Fortune Indonesia, recently released Kemenko Polkam data indicate that approximately 70% of illegal online casino users in Indonesia earn less than 5 million rupiah ($300) per month.
The ministry’s latest data also revealed that “most” of these individuals are also recipients of welfare payments, the media outlet added.
Average monthly salaries in Indonesia vary, with some estimates placing the average national monthly wage at around IDR 5.9 million ($354).
Controversy over the fate of the welfare recipients caught gambling online continues to rage in Indonesia.
Indonesian Online Casino Users Lose Benefit Payments
The government’s financial intelligence agency, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), has launched an automated online gambling transaction monitoring system.
If the PPATK detects online casino-related transactions in welfare recipients’ bank account history, it automatically sends benefit cancellation orders to local welfare offices.
Critics say these measures are overly harsh. They claim that the system is punishing entire households for the actions of a single individual.
The Indonesian news outlet Kompas reported on October 30 that an unnamed family living below the poverty line in Kulon Progo Regency is now “facing a bitter fate” at the hands of the PPATK system.
The outlet explained that benefits have been cut off to a household in the regency where a man was found gambling online.
The man’s wife, the media outlet explained, is battling cancer. She was using the welfare payments to pay for her chemotherapy and related treatments.
A local official said, “These are really poor people. The man’s wife needs chemotherapy and regular apheresis. Their son is also still very young.”
The official confirmed that the PPATK and a government ministry had ordered welfare offices to discontinue Family Hope Program payments. The household’s Non-Cash Food Assistance payments have also been stopped.
And the parties ordered a two-month suspension of health-related payments. The government issues these benefits exclusively to low-income families.
A ‘Multidimensional Threat’
A spokesperson for the Kemenko Polkam called online gambling a “multidimensional threat to family finance and Indonesian social stability.”
Safriansyah Yanwar Rosyadi, a department head at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, said, “We have blocked millions of pieces of gambling-related content [from social media platforms and websites]. But the number of new posts is growing just as quickly as we shut them down. This is a global challenge. It requires collaborative work.”
Earlier this month, police in the Hulu Sungai Utara Regency charged a 22-year-old female social media star known as Nab with promoting online casinos on her Instagram account.
