Indonesia Continues to Strengthen Cooperation to Eradicate Online Gambling, Transactions Successfully Reduced
Jakarta – The government, through the Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, continues to strengthen cross-border cooperation in an effort to eradicate online gambling practices, which are now categorized as transnational organized crime.
“We will strengthen this cooperation and strengthen it. If necessary, we will hold a dialogue and reach an agreement with the countries concerned to stop online gambling,” said Yusril.
Yusril emphasized that efforts to eradicate online gambling cannot be carried out domestically alone but must also be carried out through concrete diplomatic steps.
According to him, the phenomenon of online gambling has become a serious problem that transcends geographic and jurisdictional boundaries between countries. Therefore, cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally, is essential for effective eradication.
“Not only bilaterally, but also multilaterally, because it involves cooperation between countries in the Southeast Asian region,” he said.
He explained that advances in information and communication technology have opened up significant opportunities for cybercrime networks to operate across national borders.
The virtual world, he said, has made people’s lives seamless, allowing online gambling activities to spread easily and harm the wider community.
Yusril also mentioned that several countries in the ASEAN region are suspected of being hubs of online gambling activities, impacting neighboring countries, including Indonesia.
In his speech at the Strengthening of the Money Laundering Crimes Committee (TPPU) event at the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), Yusril also emphasized the difference between online gambling and conventional gambling.
“Online gambling is not a crime or conventional gambling like betting, card games, or even cockfighting in traditional societies, but online gambling is a transnational organized crime,” he said.
As Chairman of the TPPU Committee, Yusril emphasized that cooperation between parties—both domestically and internationally—is key to success in suppressing online gambling transactions, the value of which has decreased significantly thanks to massive government monitoring and blocking.
“Without close cooperation between us, both internally and externally, with other countries, it will be impossible for us to address, prevent, and eradicate online gambling activities,” he said.
Yusril also recalled President Prabowo Subianto’s speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea, which called for the importance of global collaboration to eradicate transnational cybercrime.
“The President emphasized the need for international cooperation to eradicate transnational online gambling, which has clearly harmed the national economy,” Yusril said.
With increasingly solid coordination between the government, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the Ministry of Communication and Digital, law enforcement officials, and cross-border cooperation, online gambling transactions have reportedly been significantly reduced compared to 2024.
[w.R]
