Police in Jakarta, Indonesia, say they have shut down three illegal online casino sites and arrested a man accused of masterminding all three.
Jakarta Metropolitan Police officers said they raided a house in the Kubu Raya Regency of West Kalimantan on the morning of June 10.
Police said they charged a 25-year-old man with the initials AYA with online gambling and money laundering-related offenses, the Indonesian media outlet Kumparan reported.
Detectives said they began investigating the sites (Spinterus69, Rajaplay303, and Bigroyal99) earlier this month.
The sites offered patrons betting options on a variety of gambling games, including slots and live card games like poker.
It also allowed bettors to place wagers on sports games and play “fish shooting” games. The latter refers to multiplayer, arcade-like video games that are becoming increasingly popular among illegal gambling communities across Asia.
All forms of gambling are illegal in Indonesia.
Suspect Learned to Run Online Casino Apps from Telegram
“We also confiscated several pieces of evidence at the address,” a senior Jakarta Metropolitan Police official said on June 12.
Officers said that AYA acted independently and learned how to create and manage online gambling apps by using instructions posted in a Telegram group.
Police said he exploited several “operational loopholes” to buy a black-market copy of a gambling app engine. He then designed his own server, bought domain names, and integrated several payment gateways.
These gateways let patrons make deposits from their bank accounts and even the QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) system.
The QRIS is a QR-coded national digital payment system operated by Bank Indonesia.
These payment options helped “streamline user deposits and withdrawals,” the spokesperson said.
“All of the players’ losses went into AYA’s holding account. He periodically transferred online gambling winnings using his personal accounts,” another police official said.
Three Online Casinos Shut Down, Police Hunt More
The development comes as Indonesian police and government agencies continue to crack down on online casino operators and patrons.
Ministries have cut welfare benefits payments to hundreds of thousands of families where at least one member has gambled online.
Government agencies have told commercial banks to report any transaction that looks like a deposit or withdrawal on an online betting platform.
The state then conducts its own investigation and orders local welfare offices to halt payments.
Officers in Dairi Regency recently arrested a man who allegedly stole over $3 million from his employer to gamble online.
After losing the money, the man reportedly purposely crashed his vehicle into a building and beat himself in the face with a wooden block.
He then filed a fake police report, claiming he had been mugged, police say.
