Expert Claims Online Gambling Headquarters in Hayam Wuruk Targets Victims from Outside Indonesia

JAKARTA - Cybersecurity expert from Vaksincom, Alfons Tanujaya, assesses that the online gambling (judol) headquarters uncovered in Hayam Wuruk, Jakarta, targets victims from outside Indonesia. This is based on the number of foreign nationals (WNA) arrested in Hayam Wuruk. Victims of judol are targeted using languages familiar from the countries of origin of the arrested WNA. “Actually, the targets are foreigners; we see that the majority (arrested) are Vietnamese, and there are people from mainland China. So the targets are there (Vietnam and China),” he said during the Kompas.com Newsroom Chat event on Monday (11/5/2026). Many Indonesian citizens (WNI) working as judol workers are recruited in Cambodia. “So if, for example, you want to scam Indonesians (as victims), it’s unlikely to be done from Indonesia,” he said. Because this pattern is becoming clearer, Alfons considers online gambling cybercrime to be an internationally organised criminal act. “So today, if Indonesia successfully arrests and hands them over to the relevant countries, they owe us a favour. They must return the favour next time if people scamming with judol from Indonesia are to be seriously arrested,” he said. As information, the judol headquarters case in Hayam Wuruk was uncovered after the National Police arrested 321 people related to international online gambling crimes on Saturday (9/5/2026). Then, on Sunday, the National Police announced that 320 of them were foreign nationals (WNA) and their detention was handed over to the Directorate General (Ditjen) of Immigration of the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services (Kemenimipas). Meanwhile, one other is an Indonesian citizen (WNI) and is being further processed at the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri).