Indonesia

Despite the current restrictions, the country's iGaming market has great prospects for development. 6Wresearch estimates that Indonesia's gambling sector could reach US$8.54bn by 2026.

What is in demand?

• 38% - betting;
• 26% - card games(poker, blackjack);
• 15% - slots;
• 11% - lottery;
• 6% - Table games (Qiu Qiu, Poker 99).

Tip: Indonesian players prefer games with a regional flavour - a familiar oriental atmosphere can increase their engagement.

What do Indonesians bet on?

• Football;
• Basketball;
• Badminton;
• Cybersports;
• Combat sports.

Target Audience

Indonesians are gambling people. This is due to the historical and demographic factors of the country's development.

Casinos are officially banned. The ban affected not only land-based casinos, but also online venues. This is primarily due to the fact that 90% of the country's population professes Islam.

Gender differences:

There is an interesting dynamic in preferences between the sexes. Men in Indonesia tend to bet on sports, while women are more likely to choose casinos.

Online casinos are played by:

• Women - 68%;
• Men - 32%.

Average age of players:

• 60.8% are 18 to 24 year old players;
• 37.1% - 25 to 34 years old;
• 1.3% - 35 to 44 years old;
• 0.8% - 45 and older.

Popular social networks among users:

• Facebook - it is used by 95.7% of the population with internet access;
• YouTube - used by 45% of internet users;
• Twitter - more than 8% of all tweets in the world are made by Indonesians.

Legislation

Both land-based gambling establishments and the online format of gambling are banned in Indonesia. Despite this, the iGaming sector continues to grow rapidly:

• online gambling transaction volume from January to March 2024 reached over $6bn, a significant proportion of the $19.5bn in transactions recorded for the whole of 2023
• Nearly 9 million Indonesian citizens participate in online gambling, of which 80,000 are children under 10 years old.
• Only from 20 October 2024 to 18 November of the same year, the authorities found about 300 thousand illegal IP-addresses, 13 thousand units of gambling advertising on Meta platforms, 2.7 thousand - on Google and YouTube, 1.5 thousand - on Twitter.
• According to government forecasts, the turnover of illegal operators in the country by the end of 2024 could reach $61.6 billion.

These significant economic losses and the involvement of minors in gambling emphasise the negative impact of the illegal industry on the finances of Indonesians and the national welfare of the country.

Based on the telling statistics, the complete eradication of illegal iGaming has become a paramount policy objective in Indonesia. We tell you about the recent measures that the country's authorities have taken to protect citizens from gambling and fight corruption among civil servants.

Forming a task force to fight iGaming

To eradicate gambling, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technology (Kominfo) is already working together with the Office of Financial Services (OJK) to block gambling bank accounts, the National Police (Polri) and Meta. Nevertheless, the joint efforts do not lead to a reduction in the number of illegal platforms.

In this regard, it was recently reported that the Indonesian military (TNI) has set up a task force to internally monitor staff involvement in iGaming.

‘There will be no mercy, no tolerance for violations by both soldiers and TNI civil servants,’ said TNI's deputy inspector general.

In addition, the authorities intend to form an additional team to combat gambling and also set up six inter-ministerial units to strengthen the effectiveness of interventions against the illegal sector and related problems:

1. Regional Chief Electoral Division
2. Smuggling prevention unit
3. drug abuse eradication unit
4. Coordination Unit for Foreign Exchange Enhancement
5. Corruption Prevention Unit
6. cyber security and data protection unit

Local law enforcement agencies recognise that the international nature of the gambling industry effectively nullifies their efforts.

Officials do not miss a chance to take advantage of their official position

The intensified police crackdown on online gambling has led to the identification of some 4,000 civil servants linked to the industry. However, officials' involvement in iGaming is only increasing.

Recently, police in Jakarta (capital of Indonesia) confiscated $4.7 million in cash, 16 cars, 34 mobile phones, 23 laptops, and two firearms from an online gambling syndicate that included 11 Kominfo employees.

The officials used their powers to keep thousands of gambling sites running, receiving a bribe of $540 for each untouched site. The defendants also used foreign currency to avoid detection by anti-money laundering authorities.

The identities of the civil servants have not yet been released, but authorities have confirmed that they were responsible for maintaining and shutting down gambling platforms and apps in Indonesia.

Hunt for Influencers Promoting Online Gambling

Kominfo is now compiling a list of local influencers involved in iGaming and handing it over to the National Police for blocking. Recently, 85 influencers have been arrested for promoting gambling and have not been stopped by a six-year prison sentence for the offence.

While tightening cyber patrols to detect illegal activities, the authorities have also launched a website and chatbot for citizens to report illegal content, including gambling sites.

Since 2017, the ministry has blocked 5.2 million pieces of gambling content online.

In addition, local officials said they will monitor all possible ways to access the illegal sector, including the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and conventional connections without VPNs.