Online Gambling Now Dominating Divorce Courts, Driving Suicides in Indonesia

Courts in Indonesia say online gambling is leading to a rise in divorce and suicide, as families bear the brunt of worsening betting addiction problems.

The country’s government embarked on a gambling crackdown, focused on online casinos, in 2023. That crackdown has since gathered pace, with officials freezing thousands of citizens’ bank accounts after identifying their owners as gamblers.

But family life is also suffering, civil law courts claim. Online gambling addiction and drug-related issues are now “dominating” divorce court proceedings in Muara Bungo in Sumatra’s Jambi Province, the Indonesian media outlet Jambi Update reported.

Data from the Muara Bungo Religious Court, the city’s top civil law court, shows that the number of couples filing for divorce last year rose 22% year-on-year to more than 900.

Online Gambling: Divorce Rates Rising, Warn Courts

“There has been an increase in the number of contested divorces and the number of women filing for divorce,” a court official told the media outlet.

The same official said that a rise in online gambling and drug addiction means “many wives no longer want to live with their husbands.” Women “instead choose to file for divorce,” said the official.

The court added that online casino addiction and drug use began surfacing as a major problem in divorce cases in 2023.

“The causes of divorce in Bungo Regency have been dominated by the same issues,” the official added. “This is a very worrying phenomenon.”

The court said that in the first few months of the year, divorce rates have shown signs of a further increase.

As of the end of February, 111 divorce cases have been filed at the Muara Bungo Religious Court, the official concluded.

Regions Say Divorce Rise is Gambling-Linked

Last year, multiple Indonesian regions reported sharp spikes in divorce rates, laying the blame at the door of online casino platforms.

The religious court of Kendari, the capital of the Southeast Sulawesi Province, said that online gambling “triggered a divorce surge” of over 5% last year.

In the regency of Bojonegoro, East Java, officials announced online gambling addiction was the reason why almost 80 couples divorced in the first eight months of 2025.

And a local government leader in the Berau Regency, East Kalimantan Province, claimed that most divorce cases in the region “are driven by the increasingly widespread availability of online gambling platforms.”

Critics say the government needs to do more to stem a rise in divorce. According to data from Statistics Indonesia, divorce rates in Indonesia have risen over the past few years, while marriage rates have continued to fall.

Suicide Suspicions

Meanwhile, police think a tax office official found dead in the bathroom of a dormitory in Kuningan, West Java, may have taken their own life after incurring spiralling online gambling debts.

Kanit Reskrim Kelapa Gading Police Station officials said they had questioned multiple witnesses to establish a cause of death.

“The [deceased] had spent all their money playing online gambling games, particularly slots,” a police official said, per the Indonesian media outlet VOI. “The [deceased] had taken out several loans and had failed to repay them all. We believe that economic factors were the cause of this incident.”