Indonesia busts illegal gambling ring, arrests 300 foreigners
More than 300 foreign nationals have been arrested in Indonesia after police raided what authorities described as a large online gambling operation in the capital, Jakarta, in one of the country’s biggest crackdowns on illegal digital betting networks in recent years.
Police said 321 people were detained during the operation, which targeted a commercial building near Jakarta’s Chinatown district. Investigators believe the site was being used as a central hub for dozens of online gambling websites aimed largely at players outside Indonesia.
Officials said the operation appeared highly organised, with workers assigned to roles including customer service, telemarketing and financial administration.
According to Indonesian National Police director of general crimes Wira Satya Triputra, the suspects were arrested while allegedly carrying out gambling-related activities inside the building.
Over 200 suspected Vietnamese
“We arrested the suspects in the act while they were carrying out activities related to online gambling,” Triputra told local media reporters.
Among those detained were 228 Vietnamese nationals and 57 Chinese citizens, while the remaining suspects came from countries including Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. Authorities said many had entered Indonesia using short-term visitor visas and were later found to have overstayed their permits while working at the operation.
Police estimate that the network had been running for about two months before the raid. Investigators also believe the syndicate managed at least 75 gambling platforms, with digital evidence and marketing records recovered from the site linking the operation to a broad international customer base.
During the raid, authorities seized computers, mobile phones, passports and cash in multiple currencies. Indonesian officials said the investigation was now expanding to identify the organisers and financial backers believed to be operating behind the scenes.
As of Saturday, 275 of those detained had already been formally named as suspects, while others remained under questioning. Those eventually charged could face prison sentences of up to nine years under Indonesia’s criminal and immigration laws, alongside fines of up to two billion rupiah, equivalent to roughly $116,000.
Online gambling remains illegal in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, where authorities have increasingly stepped up enforcement against digital betting platforms and cross-border cybercrime operations.
Officials say gambling syndicates frequently move between countries in an attempt to avoid crackdowns, often recruiting foreign workers to manage customer support systems and online operations.
Due to Cambodia, Myanmar crackdown
Untung Widyatmoko, secretary of Indonesia’s Interpol bureau, said that recent enforcement efforts in Cambodia and Myanmar may have prompted criminal groups to relocate parts of their operations elsewhere in the region, including Indonesia.
“After enforcement measures in Cambodia, we started to see a shift toward Indonesia, and that was something we anticipated,” he said.
The Jakarta arrests come amid a wider regional effort to combat online scams, gambling networks and cyber fraud operations operating across Southeast Asia.
Earlier this week, Indonesian authorities arrested around 210 foreign nationals on Batam Island in connection with alleged online investment fraud activities. In separate cases, police in Surabaya and West Java detained dozens of foreign suspects linked to cross-border telephone and online scam operations.
Personalise your news with the voices shaping global iGaming. Pick SiGMA World as your source preference for exclusive interviews, prediction markets, regulatory shifts and smarter industry coverage worldwide.
