While the task force was formed in June 2024, the government has been making efforts to eradicate online gambling for a long time.
The formation of the cross-ministerial and cross-institutional task force is aimed at accelerating efforts to eradicate online gambling by making them more integrated and coordinated, from upstream to downstream.
The task force is led by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto and comprises officials from the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.
It also involves other ministries and institutions, including central Bank Indonesia (BI), the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the Attorney General's Office, the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), and the National Police (Polri).
The task force has agreed on three main tasks, including handling bank accounts suspected to be used to save money earned from online gambling activities based on the analysis of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).
In June, based on PPATK data collection, the task force blocked around 4 thousand to 5 thousand bank accounts suspected to be used for online gambling transactions. In the absence of any application or objection within 30 days, the assets of those accounts could be confiscated by the state.
The accounts were blocked for 20 days, following which the Polri's Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) conducted an investigation.
In early July, the OJK announced that banks have blocked 6,056 bank accounts indicated to be used for online gambling, based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.
The OJK also asked banks to close counts with the same customer identification file (CIF).
A number of large banks also have assured their commitment to support efforts to eradicate online gambling.
In line with instructions from the task force and the OJK, a number of banks froze accounts linked to online gambling. BRI, for example, said that it blocked 1,049 accounts indicated to be linked to online gambling in the period from July 2023 to June 2024. BNI also blocked 214 accounts associated with online gambling from January 2023 to June 2024.
For the eradication of online gambling, the next task is taking action not only against bank accounts affiliated with online gambling activities, but also people found trading bank accounts for the purpose of online gambling.
Providing details on the trading of bank accounts, Minister Tjahjanto said that the perpetrators lure people to open a bank account, which is then handed over to a collector and then sold.
This illegal activity is troubling the community by not only causing economic harm, but also affecting people socially and psychologically.
Therefore, the steps taken by the government to block online gambling content are not sufficient. The complex flow of online gambling transactions must also be checked further to limit the activities of perpetrators.
Efforts from the banking industry
The OJK has asked banks to conduct profiling and input data on bank accounts linked to online gambling transactions into the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Program Information System. That way, the data can be accessed by financial service institutions.
As a reactive-preventive step, this, according to banking observer Arianto Muditomo, could help prevent the use of the same account for subsequent violations, but it would not stop perpetrators from using different accounts and/or accounts of other banks/non-banks.
He noted that, in addition to blocking bank accounts, an investigation into the next layer should be carried out, namely determining from which bank account and to which bank account the transactions were made.
"Blocking can be carried out not only on an account level, but also on the development of watchlist against people or parties that carry out the transactions," he explained.
In connection with this, the OJK has asked banks to carry out several strengthening measures, one of which is bolstering the function of the work unit in implementing the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention (APU-PPT) program so that it can eradicate economic crimes, including online gambling.
In general, both from the issuer side and the acquirer side, there are several procedures to mitigate the risks of online gambling transactions, one of which is collaboration/acquisition/onboard due diligence process, namely 'know your customer' (KYC) on the issuer side and 'know your merchant' (KYM) on the acquirer side.
Further detection and identification are being carried out through the observation of suspected transactions and then continued by ensuring legal protection/strength.
Even though banks are doubling down on KYCs, determining the intention of every customer opening a bank account can be hard.
There is also the potential threat of deepfakes, which can be used to open digital bank accounts.
The president director of Krom Bank, Anton Hermawan, admitted this as a possibility. Krom Bank has also carried out handling measures against the threat of deepfake utilization.
Hermawan said he believes that banks need to agree on which kind of anomalous transaction patterns can be categorized as online gambling transactions. One way is to look at the transaction value and how often the perpetrators make transfers, noted. These criteria must be clear so that they can be mutually agreed upon through written rules.
Bank Mandiri is also integrating measures to identify bank accounts used for online gambling, starting from web crawling to analyzing anomalous transactions.
Bank Mandiri is using an advanced algorithm analysis technology (external cyber threat intelligence) on cybersecurity data obtained from various sources to identify online gambling sites that illegally misuse the bank's identity.
The use of information technology for the identification of online gambling transactions is expected to be optimized continuously by banks.
Chief executive of OJK banking supervision, Dian Ediana Rae, said that the use of IT systems will be a mainstay measure for eradicating online gambling considering that many illegal transactions occur every day through bank accounts.
To check the trading of bank accounts, banks have been asked to intensify efforts to curb the illegal activity by educating people about the rights and obligations of bank account holders.
OJK warns people that bank account holders who carry out account trading face legal risks. Such individuals can potentially be held responsible or considered to have supported online gambling.
Besides efforts to eradicate online gambling with the active involvement of banks, the government must not overlook other transaction routes, such as e-wallets, as online gambling transactions often involve small amounts and immediate withdrawal of money.
Currently, accounts provided by banks and fintech companies, including e-wallets, can be compared in terms of function and variety of transactions.
To this end, measures for mitigation, monitoring, investigation, and settlement regarding online gambling must be carried out with the same governance and rules.
In this regard, the Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftech) has also highlighted preventive measures to prevent and anticipate online gambling practices.
Aftech chairperson Pandu Sjahrir said that the association has designed several strategies, including the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the KYC process and creditworthiness assessment.
The implementation of fraud detection system (FDS) technology is also an important step taken by the association. Aftech and its members are also continuing to monitor and close digital wallet accounts suspected to be involved in online gambling activities.
Through the efforts taken by stakeholders along with financial services institutions, it is hoped that the online gambling transaction chain can be broken.
Though this would not be an easy task, the community is awaiting positive results from the hard work of the task force and other institutions in eradicating online gambling.
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Translator: Rizka Khaerunnisa, Raka Adji
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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