Alarm Over Weak Oversight Behind International Online Gambling Headquarters Case in Jakarta
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Cybersecurity expert Alfons Tanujaya views the raid on the international online gambling headquarters in the Hayam Wuruk area of West Jakarta as an alarm signalling the weakness of oversight and coordination in handling cybercrime in Indonesia.
According to Alfons, cross-border online gambling operations could not function without an organised system exploiting gaps in supervision.
“This is organised crime. And we must be realistic that we cannot eradicate it 100 percent,” said Alfons, quoted from Kompas TV on Monday (11/5/2026).
Alfons stated that addressing online gambling cannot rely solely on the police, as the crime involves cyber aspects and cross-border financial transactions.
“The police alone are not enough because they focus on enforcement. For cyber identification, we need BSSN. To trace fund flows, we need OJK and PPATK,” he said.
“There must be a special task force consisting of police, Komdigi, PPATK, OJK, and BSSN if we are serious about tackling this,” he added.
He assessed that the handling of online gambling has so far been partial, allowing new networks to continually emerge.
Alfons compared the online gambling phenomenon to narcotics networks that continue to grow as long as market demand remains high.
“If one bookmaker is successfully arrested, but demand and profits are still large, a new bookmaker will emerge to replace them,” he said.
Therefore, according to Alfons, handling online gambling must be done in the long term.
“The handling must be like a marathon, not a sprint or short-distance run,” he stated.
In the raid, police arrested 321 foreign nationals suspected of being involved in the cross-border online gambling operations. Of these, 275 have been named as suspects.
Director of General Criminal Acts at Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Pol Wira Satya Triputra, said the building had been used as an online gambling operational centre for about the last two months.
Police also found 75 domains and online gambling sites used by the perpetrators to avoid blocking.
In addition, the authorities seized various pieces of evidence, including safes, passports, mobile phones, laptops, computers, and cash in various foreign currencies and rupiah estimated at Rp 1.9 billion.