The Center for Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis (PPATK) reported that the accumulated turnover of money online gambling during 2023 reached IDR 327 trillion or 63 percent of The total accumulated money turnover since 2017 has reached IDR 517 trillion. During 2023, PPATK recorded that at least 3.29 million people played online gambling with total deposits reaching IDR 34.5 billion.

According to the results of the identification conducted by PPATK, the majority of people involved in online gambling bet with nominal amounts below Rp 100,000 or belong to a low-income bracket. The identified online gambling players include housewives, private employees, farmers, laborers, and even students.

Executive Director of the ICT Institute, Heru Sutadi, assesses that online gambling remains prevalent and popular among people due to demand, especially from those assuming they can quickly obtain wealth. In addition, its operation from abroad and the lack of government supervision further increases the space for online gambling to grow.

“Demand or the needs of the community because there are many whose lives are still difficult, entangled in online loans, so by online gambling they hope to get rich quickly, have their debts paid off, and hope to be able to survive amidst the increasingly difficult life. “This is like a vicious circle that makes eradicating online gambling not easy,” he said when contacted from Jakarta, Tuesday (16/1/2023).

Therefore, the eradication of online gambling is not enough with just law enforcement efforts, but also requires economic improvement. This is because the economic condition of the community has not fully recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the things reflected in the phenomenon of savings eating or eroding the savings of the community to meet daily needs. Based on the Mandiri Spending Index (MSI) study as of November 2023, the value of savings for the lower-middle class group with balances under Rp 1 million continues to decrease, reaching a level of 47.4 basis points, the lowest in almost the past two years.

Difficult economic conditions make online gambling seem to provide hope so that the community’s economy must be improved. Moreover, the impact of the pandemic has not disappeared 100 percent. Apart from macroeconomic success, it is also necessary to look at the micro conditions, because the national economy is growing, but many people are eating up their savings.

On the other hand, the World Bank in its report entitled “Aspiring Indonesia: Expanding the Middle Class” stated that the middle class in Indonesia grew 10 percent every year during the 2002-2016 period. As of 2020, the number of middle class in Indonesia was recorded at 52 million people or 19 percent of the total population. Meanwhile, the prospective middle class or aspiring middle class is recorded as reaching 115 million people or 45 percent of the total population.

“The difficult economic situation seems to provide hope for online gambling to improve the economy of the people. Moreover, the impact of the pandemic has not completely disappeared. In addition to the success of the macro economy, it is also necessary to look at the micro condition of the economy, because while the national economy grows, many people still rely on their savings,” said Heru.

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Heru added that access to gambling content is becoming increasingly easier with the development of technology. Therefore, the government needs to make additional efforts besides blocking accounts, limiting advertisements, and blocking online gambling sites.

Some of these efforts are to thoroughly investigate who the main actors behind an online gambling site are and take action against buzzers involved in marketing online gambling sites. Furthermore, the government is expected to increase public understanding and education regarding the negative impacts of gambling activities.

Previously, the Chief Executive for Supervising the Behavior of Financial Services Business Actors, Education and Consumer Protection of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Friderica Widyasari Dewi assessed that one of the roots of the problem of the rise of online gambling lies in advertising that rampant. Online gambling offers are increasingly appearing on various social media using various modes, such as children’s fairy tale sites and using advertising models that attract attention.

“There is also a scam modus operandi in the form of free slot demos that give the illusion that the slot account contains a large amount of money. However, the promise is fictional, cannot be cashed out, and is only meant to pique users’ interest. The same applies to deposit bonuses. These fictional numbers push participants to continue playing and making deposits,” he said.

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Friderica added that in 2023, OJK will further intensify the effective measures that have been implemented, particularly through the blocking of online gambling accounts in the banking sector. Additionally, each financial sector is committed to strengthening the prevention of the use of financial products and services for online gambling crimes.

Account blocking

Until early 2024, OJK has ordered banks to block more than 4,000 accounts related to online gambling activities. This effort is in line with OJK’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of the financial system from criminal activities, such as facilitating online gambling.

TIM KOMPAS

Chief Executive of Banking Supervision and member of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Dian Ediana Rae in an interview with Kompas, Tuesday (28/11/2023).

Chief Executive of OJK Banking Supervision, Dian Ediana Rae, said that the blocking was the authority of the OJK as mandated in Law Number 4 of 2023 concerning Development and Strengthening of the Financial Sector. Apart from that, the banking sector is also asked to always implement customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence (CDD/EDD) processes to identify potential account misuse, both by customers and prospective customers.

“OJK will continue to coordinate with the ministries/agencies in combating online gambling activities and other crimes, including the potential suspicious transactions made by political parties. The banking industry is requested to update and strengthen the parameters of their anti-money laundering systems, terrorism financing prevention, and prevention of financing for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction so that they can detect anomalous transactions originating from criminal activities,” he said.

Also read: Online Gambling Money Turnover Reaches Hundreds of Trillions of Rupiah Per Year

Separated, Head of Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) Ivan Yustiavandana explained that PPATK has discovered a mode of online gambling transactions, namely by using a nominee or someone else’s bank account. The bank account is obtained from the practice of borrowing and selling bank accounts by the community to online gambling perpetrators to be used as a recipient account for online gambling funds.

Then, most of the funds from the account were taken abroad by the perpetrators using shell companies. As is known, shell companies are often associated with business activities that have the potential to violate the law, such as money laundering.

“The nominal amount of funds that have been taken abroad totaled Rp 5 trillion. Furthermore, the total number of accounts temporarily frozen amounted to 3,935 accounts with a total balance of Rp 167 billion,” he said in PPATK’s Online Work Reflection for 2023 on Wednesday (10/1/2023).”