[NEWS]Indonesia Blocked 3.7M Gambling Websites Since 2024

[Odusko]

For those outside Indonesia, that figure is indeed hard to believe. Yet, such is the reality. In Indonesia, there are many gambling sites that look unprofessional, unlike Stake, Rainbet, Shuffle & several other big brands. I suspect they compiled the data based on names per domain. Consequently, mirror sites are also included in the records. That explains why the figures are so high.

I understand that that figure is likely true 3.7 million gambling websites is actually achievable if the gambling market in Indonesia 🇮🇩  is unregulated there must be likelihood of several scam casino who just popped up and off just stealing gambler's money in an unethical ways, the Indonesia government have done well; at least this paves the way for people to get access to legit gambling sites around.

[acroman08]

I don't believe it. Even if it's true, it doesn't have a positive impact on Indonesia. You can easily bypass it by using a VPN or Google DNS.

Yeah, sure, but then again, they are risking getting arrested if they gamble online since gambling is prohibited in the country.

If they are serious about banning gambling, they should also take action against people who promote online gambling on social media. I still see many influencers and gambling ads online, yet enforcement seems limited.

Are you talking about influencers inside Indonesia? If you are, maybe report them, but if not, the Indonesian government can't really do anything about it, apart from blocking or removing the ads that can be seen in their country.

[Hispo]

I don't believe it. Even if it's true, it doesn't have a positive impact on Indonesia. You can easily bypass it by using a VPN or Google DNS. If they are serious about banning gambling, they should also take action against people who promote online gambling on social media. I still see many influencers and gambling ads online, yet enforcement seems limited. Somehow, I think they make gambling illegal so the money goes into their personal or group's pockets instead of being collected as tax revenue for the country.

All comes down again to the eternal discussion on whether gambling should be legal or not. Regulated or not, and my opinion has not changed so far: gambling is supposed to be legal and regulated, not only because it makes more difficult for people to fall for shady and scam services on the internet, also because adults are supposed to do whatever they want with their money.
It does not necessarily has to be a discussion about governments being able to collect tax from gamblers, since there are some exceptional countries in which gaming is legal, regulated and yet their administrations do not collect any money from their gambling citizens.

[Darker45]

The government must be dead serious in its anti-gambling campaign if it was able to block 3.7 million gambling websites in just two years. This is a big number, but considering that the country has almost 300 million people, it might be an honest figure.

It's not unexpected that gambling operators won't stop attempting to make money from that juicy market. I'm sure these operators won't easily back out. One site dies, two new ones are born. Especially in this internet age, many operators might even be running it from overseas. They're not afraid to release one new site after another.

[aioc]

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.

I understand that gambling is strictly prohibited in Indonesia, being a Muslim country, but I never imagined Indonesia being so dedicated to blocking gambling-related websites.

The number is so huge its surprising to me that we have millions of gambling sites. I think countries where gambling is illegal could learn from Indonesia on how to block gambling-related websites.

Gambling is legal in our country, and they are actively blocking illegal gambling platforms, but still, so many exist that they can even send promotions to cellphones. I have hundreds of text promotions every week.