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Indonesia’s national police chief has warned that online gambling is pulling in a younger crowd than many people assume, telling an audience in West Java that most online casino players are still in school.
General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who leads the Indonesian National Police (Polri), made the remarks on February 12 during an event at the Brimob training centre in Cikeas, Bogor. He said online gambling remains a serious national problem even after recent enforcement efforts.
“Technological developments have an impact on crime, and one of the most prevalent examples of this is online gambling,” Sigit said, calling it “a shared challenge for the entire nation.”
Police chief: students dominate online gambling audience
Sigit said the largest group engaging with online gambling is made up of university and high school students.
“Most online casino players are students,” he said. “The next biggest group is ordinary employees, followed by [small] business owners.”
He also raised a child-protection concern, saying under-18s are. getting caught up as well.
“Many children under 18 are engaging with online gambling,” Sigit said. “This is certainly a concern for us all. And we need to be able to combat it.”
He argued that policing alone will not be enough, and urged schools and government bodies to join prevention efforts. Sigit said police have instructed units to collaborate with ministries and public institutions, including the communications ministry, to expand education aimed at reducing the number of cases.
Crackdown numbers keep rising, but public confidence is shaky
The comments follow Polri’s recent sharing of fresh enforcement totals with lawmakers. In a January 26 hearing with Parliament’s Commission III, Sigit said police had handled 665 cases tied to online gambling, named 741 suspects, and seized assets worth Rp1.5 trillion. He also cited 5,961 accounts blocked and more than 241,000 online gambling sites or links taken down.
Financial regulators have also turned up the pressure on payment channels. OJK has instructed banks to block more than 30,000 accounts suspected of being used for online gambling, and has cited anti-money laundering data showing online gambling fund turnover of Rp155 trillion through the third quarter of 2025.
Yet a January survey of Indonesian adults showed limited confidence that police can wipe out the sector completely. Just 6.6% said they were very confident Polri would succeed, while about one in five said they had no confidence at all.
Illegal nationwide, harsher in Aceh
Online gambling is a criminal offence in Indonesia. Penalties can include prison time and fines, depending on the charges used. In Aceh, sharia-based local rules add another layer, and corporal punishment has been used in gambling cases.
For Polri, the message this week was blunt: the audience is young, the ecosystem is persistent, and the next phase has to target education as much as arrests.
Source: detiKnews
