The government of Timor-Leste accepted a resolution at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, which cancels the licences awarded to operate online games and betting under the guise of maintaining security and social order. The cabinet statement also declares the resolution offered by the minister of cabinet affairs, Agio Pereira, which cancels the ongoing procedures on the granting of new licences and the ban on the provision of new licences, in this type of activity.

It was passed in a show of action that noted several security concerns within the country, the stability of its social life, the soundness of its economy and the image of the country, the statement said. That resolution also proclaims that the minister in charge, along with the security forces, shall oversee the enforcement of the measures passed by the government resolution.

UNODC Warns of Rising Criminal Networks in Oecussi

On 11 September, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a warning about the spread of criminal networks in the enclave of Oecussi, the Timorese enclave on the Indonesian side of the island of Timor, indicating that findings of late investigations in the region suggested that it was contaminated. A report on East Timor suggests that criminal networks have been targeting the special administrative region of Oecussi, which explains that the article suggests that there is every justification for the use of digital crime in the region, including the activities of individuals who were already convicted in other Asian nations.

The release of the UNODC document came after the investigations by the Timorese authorities led to the arrest of 10 individuals on suspicion of conducting illegal gambling and computer fraud in Oecussi. The experts believe that the growth of the fraud centre industry in Southeast Asia and East Timor is an indicator of its overall growth, and cite the case of East Timor as having strikingly similar patterns to other economies known to harbour illegal forms of online gambling, like Macau, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines or Malaysia.

Concerns Over East Timor’s ASEAN Entry and Rising Crime Risks

They caution that the situation might even deteriorate as East Timor joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in October. In its 2002 report, the UNODC merely declared that an individual “who owns a government in East Timor” is among those who own a hotel that seems to host firms involved in crime.

A report of the new criminal networks in operation in the Timorese enclave states that Hotel A is controlled by several individuals, one of whom is known to have worked in the Government of East Timor; the Hotel seems to have its use, through regular business contacts, by a second hotel establishment in Dili, linked to the recently toppled Government of RAEOA [Special Administrative Region of Oecussi].