Indonesia gov blocked poular search engine over gambling results.

[satscraper]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

[Nwada001]

I don't think Indonesia was ever a gambling-friendly country based on their religion, as they are among the Muslim countries that I have read of that take their religious beliefs very seriously, so if you check the reason for the search engine access blockage, it was not just because of gambling, but pornography ads were also part of the reason.
 
Gambling and pornography are illegal in most Muslim areas; it will be better if some of the citizens here can shed more light on how seriously they take this, and in such a country, I doubt if you can ever find a legal land-based casino there that you can visit.

[Hirose UK]

Indonesia is one of the countries with majority Muslim population and there are many regulations and provisions of the law that have guidelines based on religious law, many activities are considered illegal.
So far there have indeed been several problems in Indonesia related to gambling, but on average it is local gambling site that is still fiat-based and many efforts have been made by the government in dealing with or preventing the spread of online gambling.
But seeing some of the news circulating has been mentioned if the spread of gambling there is because some rulers and influential people have received some kind of bribe for protection.
If it is possible freely then maybe accessing it must be done using VPN and I think in Indonesia there are no land-based casinos anywhere so you will never be able to find it.

[acroman08]

I'm sorry but this just sounds ridiculous(at least for me), I mean, it's common sense that a search engine will show search results of pornography or gambling if it is searched on the browser. I guess they want duckduckgo to automatically block any results that have something to do with porn or gambling when being used in their country.

[swogerino]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

Nothing new in these type of governments as they try to block or oppress gambling for their citizens,most likely these tend to be either poor countries either oppressing dictatorship ones.The solution is simple,buy a 5 dollar VPN in your phone or laptop and no one can limit you.Now although most casinos claim in their ToS that is against them to use a VPN from what I have seen from major ones they will not say anything if done for a couple of days or a couple of weeks max,again this is just my personal experience with such casinos and does not mean will be the same for all persons.

[satscraper]

I think in Indonesia there are no land-based casinos anywhere so you will never be able to find it.

My quick research suggests the availability of the private gambling rooms in some Indonesia hotels and if this info is correct such places would satisfy my gambling needs. Regarding to big  casinos, it seems you are right, they are not permitted to operate officially though  some underground ones may still in existence but, I think, such places house the  menacing danger for the stranger thus I don't visit them.

[Orpichukwu]

I think in Indonesia there are no land-based casinos anywhere so you will never be able to find it.

My quick research suggests the availability of the private gambling rooms in some Indonesia hotels and if this info is correct such places would satisfy my gambling needs. Regarding to big  casinos, it seems you are right, they are not permitted to operate officially though  some underground ones may still in existence but, I think, such places house the  menacing danger for the stranger thus I don't visit them.

According to their local laws, which are also not only limited to citizens but also to visitors, gambling activities are highly prohibited there. Even online casinos and their related platforms have been blocked from being accessed from Indonesia, and anyone found guilty of violating the laws faces some punishment, which in most cases might end up landing the person in prison. So I will advise you, if you are to visit, to totally stay away from gambling activity in order not to get yourself in trouble there. 

Is Gambling Legal in Indonesia?
Gambling is prohibited in Indonesia, it is considered completely illegal for both locals and foreigners. There are no proper casinos in the country, and those who practice gambling may find severe punishments by authorities and thrown to jail.

[bering]

Indonesia ban online casinos but surprisingly they have plenty of active gamblers which are willing to spend their money for their gambling activities and the most popular game which very common to played by indonesian people when they visiting the casinos is slot game and indeed the government was very active to attempts to stop people to gamble so that's why they block the access to online gambling sites and and one of the way is they block popular search engine and this method is often done by the Indonesian government lately
But this way won't be effect to the people at there because until now indonesian people are still able to visiting online gambling sites and playing at there because to satisfied their hobbies usually indonesian people find the way to still gamble and the common way is they using paid VPN to visiting online gambling sites

[davis196]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

I guess that the Indonesian Internet Service Providers(ISPs) were required by the regulators to block the Duckduckgo search engine.
However, this can be easily bypassed by using a VPN or residential proxies. Socks proxies might work as well.
I wonder if the big search engines like Google and Bing were blocked for the same reason. Countries like Indonesia are well known for trying to regulate the internet, but I don't think that such measures would have any impact over the gamblers.
Are there any local casinos in Indonesia? I'm not sure about this, but I think that offline gambling used to be banned there.

[bubilas]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

Muslims are very religious and they always demand that guests of their countries follow their rules and laws. These laws were formed a long time ago and they have taken root in the minds of the local population.
Therefore, guests of Indonesia cannot count on having a good rest (I mean alcohol and gambling).

It is possible that a VPN can help to at least have the opportunity to play in an online casino.

[Kelward]

Religious matters are very sensitive and people can go to great lengths to protect their religious believes. If the Indonesian government decides to block gambling and pornography on any sites like they recently did on DuckDuckGo, based on their religious belief, I think that we have to respect their decision. But the question is how does the regular Indonesian feel about the blocking of gambling sites? The answer will throw more lights on the issue, perhaps Indonesians in the forum can give us more clarification, so we can know how the gambling community in that country is taking the development.

[retreat]

Indonesia has long banned gambling practices and everything related to it, maybe because Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim majority in the world and it is against the morals of the majority society. But the funny thing is, gambling in Indonesia actually operates behind the scenes and is controlled by conglomerates, if you have a "network" you can gamble freely in big cities in Indonesia and usually it is held in closed areas and backed up by the authorities. And online gambling activities are also quite massive in Indonesia and you can access them easily from your device, there are several online gambling applications that are still operating now but we don't need to discuss that here. So it's quite funny that the Indonesian government prohibits gambling, but actually many people are involved in gambling here.

[ethereumhunter]

Indonesia with largest Muslims community will not agree with gambling and they will blocked the access to the casino. But I think underground casino or private casino still running without most people know because it is a secret place for some people to keeps playing gambling. It is no surprise to me that DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia because Indonesian government trying to eradicate gambling from their country.

You may be difficult to find a local casinos because that is prohibit in all region. It is better you are not show yourself playing gambling because you can get caught by local police and gives a problem to you.  It is better you don't playing gambling in front of public because there will an operation to eradicate gambling in many city. But I can suggest you not to playing gambling to keeps yourself safety.

[Zlantann]

Gambling and pornography are illegal in most Muslim areas; it will be better if some of the citizens here can shed more light on how seriously they take this, and in such a country, I doubt if you can ever find a legal land-based casino there that you can visit.

Gambling is prohibited in all Islamic countries because it a sin based on Islamic laws. This is the problem of most browsers, which always come up with unsolicited ads that are immoral to some people. The company should have known that Indonesia forbids, such activities. People who are interested in gambling in the country can easily use VPN but porn and gambling ads should have been blocked.

I think in Indonesia there are no land-based casinos anywhere so you will never be able to find it.

My quick research suggests the availability of the private gambling rooms in some Indonesia hotels and if this info is correct such places would satisfy my gambling needs. Regarding to big  casinos, it seems you are right, they are not permitted to operate officially though  some underground ones may still in existence but, I think, such places house the  menacing danger for the stranger thus I don't visit them.

These strict anti-gambling laws are more prevalent in the Northern part of the country where offenders can face flogging and even as much as 2-3 years imprisonment. If one of your main intentions is to enjoy casino games during your visit, I suggest you seek alternatives or visit neighboring countries where gambling is tolerated. It will be very dangerous to engage in illegal gambling as a foreigner, you might be caught easily since you don't understand how it is secretly operated.

[summonerrk]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

Muslims are very religious and they always demand that guests of their countries follow their rules and laws. These laws were formed a long time ago and they have taken root in the minds of the local population.
Therefore, guests of Indonesia cannot count on having a good rest (I mean alcohol and gambling).

It is possible that a VPN can help to at least have the opportunity to play in an online casino.

I have known this search engine for a long time and I like it very much. It is not Tor, but when I surf the Internet in Duck, I am calm about my data, unlike all other browsers. And I did not notice that this browser is inclined to vulgarity and gambling. It seems that Indonesian regulators just want to get money from the creators of DuckDuckGo.

[dzungmobile]

I don't think Indonesia was ever a gambling-friendly country based on their religion, as they are among the Muslim countries that I have read of that take their religious beliefs very seriously

Indonesia is a country with diversify religions but Muslim is a main religion there.

If anyone doubts about it, they can look at Wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Indonesia

According to Ministry of Home Affairs data in 2023, 87.06% of Indonesians identified themselves as Muslim (with Sunnis about 99%, Shias about 1%), 10.47% Christians (7.41% Protestants, 3.06% Roman Catholic), 1.68% Hindu, 0.71% Buddhists, 0.03% Confucians and 0.05% others.

With this domination of Muslim in the nation and strict rules of the religion against gambling, it makes sense why Indonesian government are doing harsh against gambling and limit exposure of citizens with gambling through search results.

I only surprise that it's Duckduckgo, not Google because Duckduckgo is an available search engine with Tor browser. How does it block users on Tor like Indonesian users?

[Cantsay]

I'm sorry but this just sounds ridiculous(at least for me), I mean, it's common sense that a search engine will show search results of pornography or gambling if it is searched on the browser. I guess they want duckduckgo to automatically block any results that have something to do with porn or gambling when being used in their country.

I don’t know what the people that complained search for but if it had nothing to do with “porn” or “gambling” and yet it brought it up then the ban was appropriate - but if they did search for terms that are related to those stuffs and yet complained about the result then the ban is bullshit and shouldn’t have been placed in that search engine. 

Search engines usually have “safe mode” for this kind of stuff, if you know you don’t want contents that are +18 then turn it on and safely search the internet without fear of being given result of +18 contents. I rarely use DuckDuckGo so I can’t really tell how strict they are when it comes to safe search mode or if they even have one.

[coin-investor]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

All the answers are already in the article: gambling is illegal in Indonesia. It is a Muslim country, so the government will monitor anything and everything that is Haram and it's not the only Muslim that does that, so the action is pretty obvious on their part.

According to the article, Google's search engine is still working, maybe because they already censored it for Indonesians so they could retain their presence.

I think Duck Duck should follow Google's lead to enter Indonesia, which is to restrict or censor their search engine.

[Eternad]

Just encountered this news - "DuckDuckGo blocked in Indonesia over ..., gambling search results." which has dropped a bomb on me. I have never been in this country and always thought it is loyal to gambling. But it seems to be not. How does the matter lie at present? I wonder this because of my plans to visit Indonesia for a couple of weeks and when visiting countries for the first time  I commonly show myself  round the local casinos.

AFAIK, Indonesia is never a gambling friendly. Our fellow Indonesian forum member is using VPN and other ways just to access some popular online casino. They can only play on some online casino that specifically licensed for their country but the general casino license such as Curacao usually restricts Indonesia for accessing the casino.

I believe their government wants to regulate their citizens properly in terms of gambling activities since they want their citizens to only play on government license casino.

[Woodie]

I don't think Indonesia was ever a gambling-friendly country based on their religion, as they are among the Muslim countries that I have read of that take their religious beliefs very seriously, so if you check the reason for the search engine access blockage, it was not just because of gambling, but pornography ads were also part of the reason.

Correct!!

I almost thought there was some political tension going on in that country Not until after remembering that this part of the world take religious beliefs seriously.

But out of curiosity I don't think the government got involved out of the blue, the community must have complained and needed the help of the immorality going on especially that this is a digital age and anything can be accessed via the internet ...the porn, gambling , scamming etcetera just show how much freedom is out there on the internet, but with proper guidance they should get the citizens back on track especially the minor's who need their futures safeguarded.