(AsiaGameHub) – Indonesian police have carried out one of the largest online gambling busts in the nation following a raid on a West Jakarta building linked to dozens of betting websites.
Good to Know
- Law enforcement arrested 321 foreign nationals during a raid near Jakarta’s Chinatown district.
- Investigators connected the raided location to more than 75 distinct online gambling platforms.
- Authorities confirmed many suspects also face accusations related to immigration violations and money laundering.
Indonesia has ramped up its crackdown on foreign-operated digital crime after police raided a commercial building in West Jakarta and detained 321 foreign nationals tied to a suspected online gambling network.
According to allegations, the operation catered to overseas bettors through at least 75 websites. Police stated the group had operated from the site for roughly two months, with separate teams managing customer service, telemarketing, and finance work.
Jakarta Raid Indicates a Broader Regional Shift
The detainees include 228 Vietnamese nationals and 57 Chinese nationals, with the remainder coming from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. As of Saturday, police had formally named 275 detainees as suspects, while questioning for the remaining group is still ongoing.
Brigadier General Wira Satya Triputra, director of general crimes at the Indonesian National Police, said officers caught the group mid-operation during the raid. He said:
“We apprehended the suspects in the act while they were conducting activities connected to online gambling.”
Police seized cash in multiple currencies, alongside safes, laptops, mobile phones, passports, and other related equipment. Investigators said digital records and marketing files show the betting sites mainly targeted users located outside of Indonesia.
“We uncovered suspected organized gambling activities involving foreign nationals from a range of countries,” Triputra said.
Authorities also uncovered multiple visa violations among the group. Police said most suspects entered Indonesia on short-term visitor visas before overstaying their permits to work for the network. Convictions on current charges can carry prison sentences of up to nine years and fines of up to 2 billion rupiah, equal to roughly $116,000.
Untung Widyatmoko, secretary of Indonesia’s Interpol bureau, said increased enforcement in nearby countries has already pushed some criminal operators to relocate to Indonesia. He said:
“After enforcement crackdowns in Cambodia, we began to see a shift of operations toward Indonesia, and this was a development we anticipated.”
Online gambling remains illegal in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The Asian Racing Federation estimates the total annual value of illegal betting in Asia hits $425 billion.
This Jakarta raid follows a string of other foreign-linked cybercrime arrests across Indonesia. Authorities recently detained around 210 foreign nationals in Batam over suspected online investment fraud, 44 Japanese and Chinese nationals in Surabaya over an alleged scam operation, 16 suspects in Sukabumi, and 26 alleged online scammers in Bali who were later deported.
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