Indonesia seizes $36.2M in major online gambling crackdown

Indonesian police and financial watchdogs have cracked down on illegal online gambling, freezing around 5,000 bank accounts containing IDR 600 billion ($36.2 million) linked to betting operations. It’s the latest move in a growing push to shut down digital gambling networks that have been raking in massive profits.

Indonesia’s Head of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), Ivan Yustiavandana, and Head of the Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) of the National Police, Commissioner General Wahyu Widada, said the online gambling activities were linked to the gambling site, H55 HIWIN.

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Pada hari Jumat (2/5) di Markas Besar Kepolisian Republik Indonesia (Mabes Polri), Kepala Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan (PPATK), Ivan Yustiavandana bersama Kabareskrim Polri Komisaris Jenderal (Komjen) Pol. Wahyu Widada menggelar kegiatan… pic.twitter.com/yBLAMMZY6e

— PPATK (@PPATK) May 2, 2025

During the briefing, Commissioner General Wahyu pointed out the growing threat of cybercrime in the digital era, specifically illegal online gambling networks. According to the press release, the agencies stated that technological advances have opened the door to cybercrimes that harm the public. As a result, the National Police focused on H55 HIWIN, which ran its gambling business under the guise of a company acting as an aggregator.

The investigation began with tracing financial transactions involving deposits and withdrawals from H55 HIWIN through two merchant aggregators: PT Digital Maju Jaya (SENCE) and PT Cahaya Lentera Harmoni. “This disclosure began with tracing the flow of deposit and withdrawal funds from the H55 HIWIN online gambling site through the merchant aggregators,” Wahyu explained.

The probe led to the freezing and confiscation of funds belonging to these merchants, spread across eight payment service providers, amounting to IDR 14.7 billion ($900,000).

Investigators also uncovered six additional gambling websites affiliated with H55 HIWIN: Bahagia789, LuckyBali, 7276.com, Suka789, JiliaApp, and Lucsvip.net.

Online gambling transactions in Indonesia grew by 213% from 2022 to 2023, reaching IDR 327 trillion ($20 billion). However, growth slowed in 2024, with online gambling transactions totaling IDR 359 trillion ($21.7 billion), a rise of only 10%. “The good news is that in 2024, the growth was significantly below the previous prediction of IDR 440 trillion ($26.6 billion),” Ivan said.

The Jakarta Globe reports that President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has ramped up its crackdown on online gambling, removing nearly 900,000 pieces of gambling-related content across digital platforms by blocking websites, IP addresses, and taking down social media posts.

At the same time, between 2020 and November 2024, Jakarta repatriated more than 5,111 Indonesians who had been caught up in online scam operations in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, according to data from the foreign ministry cited by Kompas.

Featured image: Indonesia’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK)

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