Indonesia police chief vows action against officers implicated in online gambling
Listyo Sigit Prabowo has attended a working meeting with the House of Representatives Commission III.
Indonesia.- General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, chief of the Indonesian National Police, has will pursue measures against any police officers implicated in supporting online gambling. He made the statement following a working meeting with Commission III of the House of Representatives at the Parliament Complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday (November 11).
Sigit Prabowo said he had directed the Professional and Security Division (Propam) to take disciplinary actions against any officers found to be involved and that criminal investigations would also be taken. According to Tempo, he said: “For those involved in receiving or even backing [bribes], I will request a thorough criminal investigation and prosecution.”
A week ago, the Jakarta Police arrested 11 officials from the Communication and Digitalization Ministry for allegedly allowing online gambling operators to keep their websites operational despite a presidential order for an immediate shutdown. Wira Satya Triputra, director of the Jakarta Police’s General Crime Division, said officers took bribes to allow approximately 20 per cent of the 5,000 gambling websites identified to continue operating.
See also: Indonesian minister warns against using state aid for online gambling
Gambling in Indonesia is illegal for both citizens and foreigners. In September, Budie Arie Setiadi, Indonesia’s communication and informatics minister, announced that between July 17, 2023 and September 17, 2024, the ministry removed 3,383,000 pieces of online gambling content. The ministry submitted 20,842 keywords related to online gambling to Google from November 7, 2023 to August 8, 2024 and 5,173 to Meta from December 15, 2023 to August 8, 2024.
Meanwhile, several ministers are collaborating with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to stop the use of payment and banking systems for online gambling. The government has also implemented a monitoring system using artificial intelligence to detect websites associated with online gambling.
