Ministry Reports 38,000 Accounts Linked to Online Gambling to OJK

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Communication and Digital (Kemkomdigi) has reported approximately 38,000 bank accounts suspected of being linked to online gambling activities to the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

Minister of Communication and Digital Meutya Hafid explained that of the reported accounts, some 32,500 had been closed, giving an online gambling account blocking success rate of 88.5 per cent.

“We reported 38,000 accounts to OJK. Of this figure, 38,000 were reported and then closed by OJK. Closing this many accounts is certainly not easy. I believe this was also assisted by our friends in the banking sector, but we want to see this figure grow even further,” Meutya said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to her, banks with large customer bases are frequently used as channels for online gambling transactions, making prevention efforts more challenging.

“If there are banks not included here, they should not assume they have won simply because their bank was not used for online gambling transactions. The modus operandi shifts very quickly. Sites move very quickly, and accounts or transactions also shift very quickly,” Meutya said.

Among e-wallet platforms, those with the most submissions included DANA with around 2,900 accounts, LinkAja with around 1,800 accounts, and OVO with 1,097 accounts.

Meutya stressed that efforts to tackle online gambling must not stop at cutting off access to sites and content, but must be comprehensive, including targeting a key element of the online gambling ecosystem: receiving accounts.

“We see now why we hope the banking sector can be more active here? Because there are KYC (Know Your Customer) principles in banking that we hope can also help increase the figure of 38,000,” Meutya said.