Polri Urges Banks to Tighten Account-Opening Procedures to Curb Online Gambling

JAKARTA — The Indonesian National Police (Polri) Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) has urged banks to tighten procedures for opening bank accounts in order to hamper the movement of online gambling activities (judol). Director of Cyber Crime at Bareskrim Polri, Brig. Gen. Himawan Bayu Aji, explained that the move is part of efforts to prevent online gambling in Indonesia. ‘Cooperation with banks is very important, especially in preventive functions,’ Himawan said at a press conference at the Bareskrim building in Jakarta, Thursday 5 March 2026, cited from Kompas TV. Banks are also asked to have early-detection systems to close off the spaces used by online gamblers. He stated that online gambling has had a serious impact on Indonesia’s economic order. ‘We recognise that the criminal act judol harms the national economic order,’ he said. Himawan said they had just carried out asset seizures derived from money laundering (TPPU) crimes with the original crime of online gambling. The enforcement acts serve as the implementation of Supreme Court Regulation (Perma) No. 1 of 2013, sourced from TPPU with the original crime of online gambling. In the activity, the Directorate of Cyber Crime at Bareskrim Polri simultaneously handed over the assets seized to the state. ‘The court-ordered asset seizure is Polri’s commitment to supporting government priority programmes relating to asset recovery arising from criminal activity, especially online gambling,’ Himawan said. The total amount of seized assets handed over in this activity reached Rp 58,185,165,803.