The Long War Against Online Gambling...

The raid on an international online gambling (judol) network headquarters in the Hayam Wuruk area, West Jakarta, once again demonstrates the massive scale of this cybercrime in Indonesia. In an operation conducted by the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency on Saturday (9/5/2026), officers secured 321 individuals suspected of being involved in judol operations. The majority of those secured are foreign nationals (WNA), consisting of 228 people from Vietnam, 57 from China, 13 from Myanmar, 11 from Laos, five from Thailand, and three each from Malaysia and Cambodia. The activities of the workers in the office building had previously aroused suspicion among nearby residents. A resident named Ananda (not her real name) said she often saw foreign nationals coming and going from the building in recent months. “Usually, there are many foreigners like from Vietnam here. I’ve been suspicious from the start,” said Ananda when met by Kompas.com near the office building on Monday (11/5/2026). However, she only learned that the building was suspected to be a judol headquarters after police guarded the location since last Saturday. Similar suspicions were expressed by a security guard from another building nearby, Sulaiman (not his real name). He said he found the activities in the building strange because they were dominated by Asian foreign nationals. “Their language is strange (foreign). I’ve characterised it, but it wasn’t obvious because (their work) is online. I was just suspicious,” said Sulaiman. According to him, the workers at the location also often wore casual clothing while working. “Like delivery people, we know the people, we just chat. Apparently, some WNA wear shorts, whereas office workers usually wear long trousers,” he explained. The raid in Hayam Wuruk adds to the long list of efforts to eradicate online gambling in Indonesia. According to Kompas.com, data from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kemenkominfo) shows that from 17 July 2023 to 6 October 2024, the government has blocked access to 3.7 million online gambling contents.