[NEWS]Indonesia Blocked 3.7M Gambling Websites Since 2024

[acroman08]

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital just released the number of gambling related websites they have blocked since 2024. According to them, they have blocked 3.7M "gambling websites" in the last two years, and 38K bank accounts have been suspended and are suspected to be related to gambling operations.

In the article, it was also mentioned that in 2026 they arrested 1164 individuals suspected of involvement in illegal gambling operations, and they were able to confiscate $105 million in all of the arrests they made.

Now, regarding the 3.7M blocked gambling websites, those numbers are impressive, but what I am really curious about is how accurate they are and what their criteria were to consider a website a "gambling website". Just to be clear, I am not hating on them or anything, it's just that 3.7M gambling websites blocked in 2 years is a little hard to believe(at least for me). I can't help but think that they were blocking websites that mention the word "gambling".

Indonesia Has Spent 2 Years Blocking Sites – The Tally is 3.7 Million

Since October 2024, the ministry has been able to block 3.7 million online gambling websites, including affiliates, sportsbooks, and casinos, with over 38,000 bank accounts suspended and presumed to be facilitating gambling operations.

Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid released the number as part of the OJ Banking Forum 2026, with the results covering the period through July 12, 2026, and indicating that Indonesia is actively looking to crack down on illegal gambling operations.

Much of the ongoing effort to limit the reach of illegal gambling has been backed by reports submitted by the public, with at least 156,000 accounts flagged through the dedicated governmental platform, which allows individuals to submit signals about suspected gambling activity.

Gambling is prohibited in its entirety in Indonesia. Some 85,500 mobile numbers have been flagged as potentially used in scamming operations, independent of gambling. Police continue to see gambling thrive, despite these restrictive measures and the concentrated effort to root out the activity.

Draconian laws and consistent enforcement have not in themselves been enough to stop the proliferation of ilelgal gambling.

Children Also Exposed to Gambling, as Police Leads Arrests
Police have been busy, with some 1,164 suspected individuals arrested in 2026 alone over their involvement in illegal gambling operations, resulting in the seizure of $105 million.

Earlier in July, Indonesia deported 92 Chinese nationals who are tied to an illegal gambling syndicate that operated scams as well as online gaming. Indonesia has been paying attention to the proliferation of online gambling among children, with the ministry reporting in May that at least 200,000 children have been exposed to online gambling.

[masulum]

Even though I am Indonesian citizen, but I also not really sure with that number. If 3.7 million include affliates, this become make sense, because indeed there is so many affiliates ads created in social media. Unfortunately it is not mentioned whether this affiliates include social media account or real domain. If this also include social media account, then this become make sense. But if real domain and landing page, this become not make sense.

[stadus]

That number is huge. It gives us an idea of how many gambling websites are operating.

At first glance, it looks like a betting amount, but it is actually the number of websites, which is really surprising. But the question is, even if they ban and block those websites, can they really stop people from using a VPN to access them? I think the answer is no. So that kind of blocking may not be very effective against people who already know how to bypass the restrictions using a VPN.

[BABY SHOES]

That is a pretty big number the Indonesian government managed to block 3.7 million online gambling sites, but I myself am a bit skeptical of this data rather I underestimate the government itself.

Previously there have been cases where the ministry's staff employee whose job is to block online gambling sites, he is the one who keeps some of the sites online.

5000 sites, for example, must be blocked, leaving 1000 to remain active. So actually the government is still a gray area is it right to eradicate or is there still a cover?

[Russlenat]

That is a pretty big number the Indonesian government managed to block 3.7 million online gambling sites, but I myself am a bit skeptical of this data rather I underestimate the government itself.

This news is useless if people can still access these gambling sites.

Since there are millions of them, maybe around 95% (or more) are operating outside the country. That means users can still access them through a VPN, especially since they can no longer comply with local KYC requirements after the sites are banned. The bigger risk is if the casino has a bad reputation or is known for scamming users. But when it comes to blocking access, VPNs make this kind of restriction easy to bypass.

What the authorities say and what actually happens in practice can be very different.

[mirakal]

I can't be sure with that certain number of gambling casinos being blocked. I cannot even imagine that the number of casinos who want to operate in Indonesia have gone that far. But one thing is certain, no matter how many gambling websites they will be blocking in the future, if these people will resort into underground casinos, then gambling addiction will still be of high concern in Indonesia.

I guess the Indonesian government cannot stop the gamblers from being gamblers. Either through VPN or some other means, gamblers will always find ways to access gambling, especially those who have already fallen into gambling addiction.

[Hispo]

I believe that number is quite an exaggeration by the government of Indonesia, if you asked me. Like, it is probably exaggerated in order to show off how efficient their system is, or something like it.
One also needs to pay attention to whatever definition they used in order to tag a service as gambling or betting.
They probably used some artificial intelligence in order to analyze websites and to determine whether they have something to do with gaming or not, which could have resulted in false positives by whatever algorithm the government of Indonesia decided to use to block those websites.

I did not even know there were so many gambling services on the planet to reach such a huge number.

[Orpichukwu]

Now, regarding the 3.7M blocked gambling websites, those numbers are impressive, but what I am really curious about is how accurate they are and what their criteria were to consider a website a "gambling website". Just to be clear, I am not hating on them or anything, it's just that 3.7M gambling websites blocked in 2 years is a little hard to believe(at least for me). I can't help but think that they were blocking websites that mention the word "gambling".

If the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands, you could not have been having this doubt; maybe they have been blocking and adding numbers of anything that has to do with gambling that's blocked. Even if they are not directly functioning in the country, as long as it appears on their search, that's the only thing I can think of. We know a group of persons can operate hundreds of illegal casinos; each time one gets brought down, they will open new ones, but that still won't be able to raise that number.

[Chinesebaby]

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital just released the number of gambling related websites they have blocked since 2024. According to them, they have blocked 3.7M "gambling websites" in the last two years, and 38K bank accounts have been suspended and are suspected to be related to gambling operations.

In the article, it was also mentioned that in 2026 they arrested 1164 individuals suspected of involvement in illegal gambling operations, and they were able to confiscate $105 million in all of the arrests they made.

Now, regarding the 3.7M blocked gambling websites, those numbers are impressive, but what I am really curious about is how accurate they are and what their criteria were to consider a website a "gambling website". Just to be clear, I am not hating on them or anything, it's just that 3.7M gambling websites blocked in 2 years is a little hard to believe(at least for me). I can't help but think that they were blocking websites that mention the word "gambling"

That 3.7million gambling websites which the Indonesian government is claiming to have banned since 2024 is really outrageous, because I doubt if we actually have a million gambling websites in the entire world, not to talk less of just Indonesia alone. Or unless maybe the Indonesian government will literally just say they banned Internet entirely from the people in Indonesia, so that they won't be able to access Internet connection again. Because this 3.7million is too much to believe that such website do actually exist.

[Ziskinberg]

It would be more convincing if that 3.7M is the number of gamblers being blocked. But since its the gambling websites, I find it more odd and not reliable anymore. The government can always rigged their news if they really want to, they have all the access and strong connection to the news media, because that will serve as another achievement of the current administration.

Si I don't fall for this kind of news. This might only threat those innocent people and innocent gamblers as well.

[dansus021]

Indonesian here those number keeps growing  since when the gambling sites been blocked other are alive somewhere else. it is pop up everywhere lot of people getting addicted too. If you ask me why indonesia gov blocked gambling website, it is simply gambling here in Indonesia is illegal and never will be legal because the rule.

So there is no single "legal casino" online nor offline here. There is a fact why this sites keep online becasue of the money. Gambling operators in Indonesia earn massive profits, ranging from tens of millions to billions of rupiah per month at the regional level, while the national gambling turnover reaches hundreds of trillions of rupiah.

[BABY SHOES]

That is a pretty big number the Indonesian government managed to block 3.7 million online gambling sites, but I myself am a bit skeptical of this data rather I underestimate the government itself.

This news is useless if people can still access these gambling sites.

Since there are millions of them, maybe around 95% (or more) are operating outside the country. That means users can still access them through a VPN, especially since they can no longer comply with local KYC requirements after the sites are banned. The bigger risk is if the casino has a bad reputation or is known for scamming users. But when it comes to blocking access, VPNs make this kind of restriction easy to bypass.

What the authorities say and what actually happens in practice can be very different.

Until now many people still access online gambling sites easily.

The authorities once said that the gambling site server was abroad so for its own bookies it was still difficult to catch in Indonesia, except for its employees who worked to open an office there.

Gambling sites are indeed difficult to eradicate, its growth is too fast so that Die 1 grow 1000.

[iv4n]

Now, regarding the 3.7M blocked gambling websites, those numbers are impressive, but what I am really curious about is how accurate they are and what their criteria were to consider a website a "gambling website".

It's not 3.7 million unique gambling websites... that's impossible. I guess they decided to put everything in one basket, more impressive numbers for the masses. The first thing that comes to my mind is mirror sites... one casino can have a lot of mirror sites, and in two years the number of those mirror sites can be high. The other thing is "gambling operations", that is a wide term, and it can mean social network accounts as well. The governments are known for pumping the numbers to make them look good...

I had to check, Indonesia has +280 million people, the 4th most populous country in the world... so blocking millions of websites and arresting a small number of people doesn't change much.

Police continue to see gambling thrive, despite these restrictive measures and the concentrated effort to root out the activity.

Draconian laws and consistent enforcement have not in themselves been enough to stop the proliferation of ilelgal gambling.

The demand won't disappear... and as long as there's demand, someone will always be there to provide the service.

[bitbollo]

probably they are counting also mirroring or other urls on this enourmous list (like mentioned some social media advertise).
Just to see the final numbers of banks accounts seized... it's only 1% of total of websites sized.
I would not think they haven't missed 99% of it...
Anyway this kind of operations must not be a surprise. Also in the EU and ITALY there are similar blocks made by local agencies.

[TheUltraElite]

Governments not getting tax payments from people spending money on gambling leading to the officials are not getting enough in their pockets. Hence they will block sites like this and force the companies to pay them to unblock them later on. However the numbers do seem off to me, even then the objective of blocking the sites is same, to get public votes by appeasing the anti-gambling stance and to extort money from the casinos making money.

Either way we have a big Indo crowd in this forum and they are regularly spending their bitcoin on gambling sites, so it speaks a lot, circumventing the bans are is not such a difficult thing to do.

[Charles-Tim]

Now, regarding the 3.7M blocked gambling websites, those numbers are impressive, but what I am really curious about is how accurate they are and what their criteria were to consider a website a "gambling website". Just to be clear, I am not hating on them or anything, it's just that 3.7M gambling websites blocked in 2 years is a little hard to believe(at least for me). I can't help but think that they were blocking websites that mention the word "gambling".

This is very hard to believe, it is possible that they also blocked many fake and illegal sites which they categorized as gambling sites. If the gambling sites that are illegal and fake, it is possible. I know what scammers can do, all they need is just to have one gambling site. If the site is blocked, to resign it will not take much time.

[ArabBTC]

The statistics seems a bit ambiguous though but that is not my primary bone of contention, my interest is why are they blocking gambling and suspected gambling sites? and even arresting certain gamblers at (OP) is it that the Indonesian government doesn’t support legal gambling? why i am asking is because in my own country gambling activities ain’t restricted they are only controlled by certain rules just to regulate the entire gambling process, the government might know better though and i wont want to interfere since it is not my country but to me i feel humans has the right to what they like, instead of completely stopping them it is better their activities are checkmated by so doing the government might be generating some revenue from this sites and gambling activities.

[X-ray]

You're right about that. They basically only banning the keyword. this is the most simpliest way to block anything related to the gambling. It's impossible to accurately block almost 4 millions gambling sites in two years.

I also think that self claim created to show they were doing sometime while the fact what they have done have no impact because many are still able bypassing it use 3rd party application.

I've also heard that their some people in their authority have been also involving by owning some online gambling sites. Their clim is biased.

[TopTort777]

How is possible to have 3.7m gambling websites? I have seen info that there are about 1 billion web pages, if Indonesia has blocked 3.7m, this is 0.37% of the whole internet. Look unrealistic for me. If I add unblocked pages then I cant imagine to have +3.7m unique casino names and site names. These casinos might have have random name then or random combinations of symbols.

[fullfitlarry]

How is possible to have 3.7m gambling websites? I have seen info that there are about 1 billion web pages, if Indonesia has blocked 3.7m, this is 0.37% of the whole internet. Look unrealistic for me. If I add unblocked pages then I cant imagine to have +3.7m unique casino names and site names. These casinos might have have random name then or random combinations of symbols.

Yes, numbers doesn't up add and it's hard to block that kind of numbers and I don't think that illegal or legal gambling sites could attribute 3.7 million.

Not saying that Indonesian government are not blocking it, but the numbers are really that huge and it will take a lot of man power to monitor. Maybe they uses AI or bots to monitor everything and most likely there are some mistakes in blocking as they could have been just using some keywords.