Indonesian woman sentenced for promoting online gambling
Indah Siska Sari was found guilty of promoting online gambling sites on her Instagram account.
Indonesia.- A district court in Medan, North Sumatra, has sentenced a woman named Indah Siska Sar to two and a half years in prison for breaching Article 45(3) of the 2024 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law. The student from Tanjung Pura in Langkat Regency was found to have promoted an online gambling site via her Instagram account. The court ordered her to pay a Rp50m (US$2,950) fine or serve an additional two months in jail if she fails to pay.
Last October, Medan police received a tip-off and arrested the woman at Dazat Café on Jalan Alfalah in East Medan. They said her Instagram contained posts promoting a gambling site called Hopeng. According to officers, Indah was paid Rp300,000 every 15 days and earned a total of Rp850,000.
According to Tempo, judge Vera Yetti Magdalena said that the actions of Indah Siska were against the government’s efforts to tackle online gambling. Indah showed remorse for her actions and has no prior criminal record, which the judge considered a mitigating factor.
Indah and the Medan District Prosecutor’s Office have one week to decide if they will appeal the verdict. Prosecutor Vina Monica had asked for a three-year prison term and a fine of Rp15m, with an additional four months in jail if the fine was not paid.
Gambling in Indonesia is illegal for both citizens and foreigners. In March, Alexander Sabar, acting general director of Digital Space Supervision at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Technology (Komdigi) announced that between October 20, 2024 and March 8, his ministry acted against 1,118,849 instances of online gambling content on digital platforms.
