Indonesia: Kominfo teams up with financial organisations

Garance Limouzy August 8, 2024

In Indonesia, the Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) with the country’s banks and financial organisations to prevent illegal online gambling transactions. On August 7, Kominfo released a statement to announce its collaboration with the Financial Services Authority (OJK), Bank Indonesia (BI), and the Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK) to prevent the use of payment and banking systems in online gambling transactions. “If the payment systems are blocked for illegal gambling, what alternatives could they use?” exclaimed the Minister of Communication and Information, Budi Arie Setiadi (pictured above), during CNBC Indonesia TV’s Economic Update 2024 Dialogue.

Identifying accounts involved in gambling activities

Minister Budi Arie praised the efforts of Bank Indonesia and the Financial Services Authority for their commitment to fighting illegal gambling. He explained that these two organisations are now able to detect accounts used for online gambling. “They are developing a system that can quickly detect suspicious accounts. These accounts are swiftly identified and caught,” he explained. Verifying that account owners are real individuals who are actively using their accounts is a key project for the newly formed partnership. “This is in response to the widespread practice of buying and selling accounts by bookmakers involved in online gambling,” said Budi Arie Setiadi.

A larger strategy

Since July 17, 2023, Kominfo has taken aggressive measures against online gambling, shutting down 2,725,000 gambling sites, blocking 573 e-wallets, and freezing nearly 7,000 bank accounts. Despite these efforts, online gamblers continue to bypass restrictions.
Recently, Kominfo decided to block free VPNs that allow customers to access online gambling platforms. Besides targeting VPNs and payment systems, Kominfo has also introduced a limit for credit transfers to a maximum of one million rupiah ($62) per day.