Indonesia Targets 38,796 Accounts in Gambling Crackdown

Key Points

• OJK has asked banks to do some extra checking or close down around 38,796 accounts that have a link to online gambling.
• The same banks will also have to look at any other accounts that are linked to the same person’s national ID number and close them down if they need to.
• Data from the PPATK shows that people in Indonesia are making smaller but more frequent online gambling deposits and the explanation might be that the authorities are getting better at catching the transactions.

Indonesia Orders Banks to Crack Down on Online Gambling Using National ID Numbers

When banks block an account because it’s linked to online gambling, but the customer just opens up three more accounts in their name, that creates a problem for the authorities. Indonesia’s OJK is now trying to work out a way to deal with that. Back in the autumn, the OJK issued a press release in which it told banks to do some extra due diligence on about 38,796 accounts that have been flagged for online gambling. That’s a lot more than the 38,375 accounts flagged for the same reason in the previous month. But what really caught people’s eye was what the OJK said about national identity numbers.

OJK Widens Checks And What That Means

Every Indonesian has a national identity number, it’s called the NIK. When you open a bank account, the bank records that number. The OJK has now asked banks to close down any accounts that match up with people who are suspected of online gambling. And not just that they also want the banks to check out any other accounts that belong to those people too. This means that if one account gets blocked, a bank can then start looking at all the other accounts that the same person has.

This isn’t a new move we can see from earlier figures how it’s been working out. In July, the OJK published some numbers that showed how far this had gone. By May last year, banks had blocked 32,454 accounts after doing a bit more digging, just on the off chance that the customer was linked to online gambling. In the same period, they’d also rejected about 2.8 million new applications to open a bank account and shut down 51,200 existing ones. It was all because of suspected links to online gambling, not because anyone had actually been convicted of anything.

The OJK told banks to do this three days after launching its new five-year plan for the banking sector, known as RP3I. And actually, this all got announced on October 2nd but the plan itself didn’t mention it at all.

A Count That Just Keeps On Going, But In a Bit Of A Dizzying Way

The OJK has been publishing these figures just about every month and the numbers are starting to tell a story all of their own. Back in March, a newspaper called Kontan reported that the count had gone from 32,144 to about 32,556 by January. Then we hit 33,252 accounts by early April and then it started to pick up pace in the spring. By July, the Republika newspaper was reporting that it had grown to 36,191 accounts, that’s about 2,355 more than the previous update which had put it at 33,836. Then MetroTV News did a story about it in September saying the number was now 38,375, after a slight dip to 36,735 in August.

The 5 October update added only 421 accounts, the smallest monthly rise since January. Fewer new accounts could mean fewer gamblers use banks, but no official data proves that yet. The PPATK figures, in fact, point to a more complicated picture.

PPATK Reports Decreased Online Gambling Turnover but Increased Transaction Count

The online gambling turnover in the first half of 2026 reached Rp86.82 trillion in 467.32 million transactions. This represents a decrease of 12.9% compared to the turnover recorded in the first half of 2025, amounting to Rp99.68 trillion. On the other hand, deposit values increased by almost 26% to Rp22.05 trillion and the number of transactions increased significantly by almost 140% to 226.76 million transactions.

As stated by PPATK Director General Ivan Yustiavandana, the analysis of the first half of the year indicates that nowadays gambling networks divide money into smaller portions and transfer it more often. Yet, at the same time, the institution admits that the significant increase in the number of transactions can be explained not only by increased gambling activity. Higher detection and reporting rates of the financial institutions play an important role in this process as well.

Thus, the QRIS (national QR payments system) carried 56.04% (Rp12.36 trillion) of deposit value. During the World Cup period, which took place in June-July, the deposit value related to gambling amounted to Rp1.02 trillion. It should be noted that it is much more difficult for the bank to detect thousands of small payments than one big one.

Indonesia Combats Online Gambling Not Only Through Banks

Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid has similar problems on the websites’ side. The ministry blocked 4.1 million gambling items in 2024-2026. Among them, 3.6 million items were websites or IP addresses, while the majority of these addresses are located overseas. Commenting on the issue, Meutya Hafid stated during her address on 1 October in Jakarta: “Every time we block such websites, new ones come up.”

Therefore, the importance of accounts in fighting online gambling becomes evident. As Meutya Hafid stated at the OJK Banking Forum in July, accounts are the neck of the online gambling ecosystem. According to the data presented there, the rate of account closures, which was referred to the OJK, reached 88.5%. Bank Central Asia had the biggest number of reported accounts – over 7,000, and BRI had 6,400. Meutya Hafid stressed that the list doesn’t show that banks have done anything wrong. Moreover, citizens reported 156,000 suspicious accounts on cekrekening.id portal.

The NIK Approach Brings a New Threat

Dian Ediana Rae, who serves as OJK’s chief of banking supervision, has explicitly highlighted a potential loophole in the system. He mentioned nominee and traded accounts as a priority target for identification and resolution in late July. Nominee accounts refer to accounts opened on behalf of one person, while the second individual manages them. Earlier, OJK indicated that people allow using their NIKs to open accounts for cash rewards. If a person’s NIK is marked, a bank can check all accounts they own. Some of these accounts can be linked to salaries, payments among families or small business transactions.

Banks have also shared similar concerns about the previous orders. Maybank Indonesia commented to Bisnis in 2023 that clear instructions were needed in order to prevent incorrect blocks of the accounts. While earlier the blocks were applied to single accounts, currently, it is possible to block an entire identity.

Unresolved Issues

In the reports issued every month by OJK, there is no information on the number of NIK-matched accounts blocked or cleared. In addition, it is not clear how a customer can challenge the bank’s decision regarding account closures. The new Criminal Code, Law No. 1 of 2023 states that gambling is prohibited in Indonesia. This criminal code is replacing the previous 1974 gambling law, which was abolished at the beginning of 2026. The next report from OJK, scheduled for early November, will indicate whether the small increase in October continues.

Expert Analysis: The Right Target, but Who Gets Caught?

In our opinion, the approach of NIK is quite appropriate since money used for gambling hardly remains in the same account. The idea to trace individuals through different accounts is quite sensible, and we agree with it. The problem is not the method itself, but its obscurity from the public perspective. Currently, there is only one big number per month presented to the readers with no further explanations whatsoever.

To be clear, we see a discrepancy between the number of suspicious accounts (38,796) and deposit transactions (226.76 million) made within half a year. Citizens reported about 156,000 suspicious accounts, however, there are fewer than 39,000 on the official list. The reason for such an inconsistency is unclear and the issue lies precisely in this ambiguity. It might indicate strict controls, duplicate reports or delays in referring – however, citizens have no way to distinguish what the real case is.

The next group that should receive much more publicity from the government’s side is those who rent NIK out. According to Meutya, the majority of banned IP addresses are based outside Indonesia. If law enforcement activity ends at the level of local NIK owners, the foreign operators can suffer almost nothing. Thus, the request for publication is simple: the OJK and Komdigi should disclose information regarding the number of checks and NIK closures.