Barelang City Police name three suspects in online gambling franchise case
Barelang City Police have named three suspects in a case involving alleged management of an online gambling site operating under a franchise system from a parent company in the Philippines.
Police Commissioner Debby Tri Andrestian, head of the Criminal Investigation Unit, said the investigation began following public information about suspected online gambling activities in Batam on Thursday (21 May).
“The Criminal Investigation Unit conducted in-depth investigations and identified online gambling operations at a residence in the Sukajadi area,” he said in a statement on Monday in Batam.
During the raid, police apprehended three individuals identified as HR, HL, and ET. At the time of arrest, they were operating computers and laptops to access the dashboards of three online gambling sites.
“They were recording income and expenditure through the payment gateway dashboard of the online gambling site,” he said.
Debby explained that suspect HR acted as the main manager collaborating with the Philippine-based online gambling company NPO. The partnership operates on a profit-sharing system.
“HR receives a share of profits from the Philippine parent company. HR manages three gambling websites along with their dashboards and financial systems. This operation functions like a franchise,” he said.
In addition to managing the sites, HR also coordinated staff in the Philippines who served as administrators, marketers, and customer service to promote the gambling sites and recruit new players.
Police seized evidence including 16 mobile phones, three tablets, one laptop, two CPU units, four monitors, four bank tokens, two passports, and cash amounting to Rp1,001,460,000.
The suspects face charges under Article 45(3) in conjunction with Article 27(2) of Law No. 1 of 2024, amending Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE).
Barelang Police Chief Commissioner Anggoro Wicaksono urged the public to avoid involvement in online gambling as either players or operators.
“Residents are advised to use social media and the internet responsibly and report any suspected online gambling activities in their vicinity immediately,” he said.