Indonesia’s Online Gambling Battle: Minister Flags Gaps in Enforcement

A senior Indonesian government minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, in charge of Legal, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections Affairs, publicly declared that the country’s efforts to combat online gambling remain “not optimal”. During a meeting in Jakarta he stressed the prevention and eradication of online gambling continues to fall short of expectations.

Mahendra singled out the limited involvement of broader societal actors, pointing out that gambling is “rarely addressed in religious sermons” and emphasizing that tackling online gambling is a collective responsibility involving parents, teachers, religious figures and public personalities. He questioned why, in his view, religious leaders had largely neglected the issue of online gambling in their teachings over recent years.

The remarks come amid mounting statistics: Indonesia has reportedly recorded online gambling turnover worth tens of billions of US dollars, with millions of users, while authorities blocked dozens of thousands of bank accounts linked to gambling and removed tens of thousands of gambling-related adverts. The government is currently preparing more aggressive regulation and enforcement measures, including targeting digital platforms, fintech companies and ISPs to crack down on illegal gambling. 

Despite this regulatory push, Mahendra and other officials concede that enforcement remains patchy, prevention weak and that cultural channels (religious, community) are under-used. The gap between large reported volumes of illegal gambling and the pace of prosecutions, closures or social-intervention efforts remains a key concern.