Some online gambling activities linked to money laundering, Indonesian minister says

JAKARTA: Communications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi has alleged indications of money laundering in some online gambling activities traced by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in the first quarter.

“It is not just online gambling, because there are several cases [of money laundering] where they got the [illicit] money from winning in gambling,” Budi told a meeting on Monday (June 10) with House of Representatives Commission I overseeing communications and information, defense, intelligence and foreign affairs.

The minister refrained from divulging any details about the cases he mentioned.

Earlier, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Hadi Tjahjanto revealed that PPATK’s findings that online gambling activities that took place in the January-March period reached a combined transactional value of Rp 100 trillion (US$ 6.1 billion), around one-third of the full-year transactional value of online gambling activities totaling Rp 327 trillion in 2023.

Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Commission I member Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party faction noted the staggering amount of economic losses due to online gambling and questioned the efforts taken by the communications ministry to eradicate the illegal activity.

“In a previous meeting, [minister Budi Arie] said that his ministry had blocked 800,000 online gambling sites [last year]. But, with [all transactions] last year reaching Rp 327 trillion and this year’s first quarter already amounting to Rp 100 trillion, does that mean [the ministry’s efforts] are not effective?” Nurul said.

She also cast doubt over the effectiveness of the ministry’s 2025 budget proposal for preventing online gambling, given the seeming lack of progress in curbing the illegal activity.

Responding to Nurul’s concerns, Budi said his ministry remained committed to tackling online gambling.

“It is about family finances [and] our future as a nation that are ruined,” he said, even more so because Indonesia’s losses were the gains of other countries.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo formed a special interministerial task force last month tasked with curbing the scourge of online gambling.

He appointed senior minister Hadi to chair the team, with Budi Arie heading its prevention division and National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo heading its enforcement division.

Gambling of all forms, both online and offline, are illegal in Indonesia.

Participants and organizers of a gambling event can be sentenced to a maximum 10 years in prison and a Rp 25 million fine, as stipulated in Article 303 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).

Distributors of online gambling software can face up to six years in prison and a Rp 1 billion fine under to the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law. – The Jakarta Post/ANN