Indonesia’s new government using AI to combat online gambling

Under new president Pabrowo Subianto, Indonesia has renewed its commitment to eliminate online gambling. The activity is strictly forbidden in the world’s largest Muslim country.

Following the October election, the former Ministry of Communication and Informatics became the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. Subianto appointed Meutya Hafid head of the rebranded ministry.

Hafid promptly announced a 100-day agenda with four goals: safeguarding personal data, digitising government services, eradicating online gambling and creating a more child-friendly internet.

The ministry is using artificial intelligence to detect and block illegal gambling content, Hafid confirmed.

“If we count from October 20,” the number of closed sites “has reached around 380,000”, she said. That includes some 300,000 illegal IP addresses and thousands of ads on internet platforms like Meta, Google and Twitter.

The government has also enlisted “special cyber-patrols to detect sites and applications that contain gambling content,” said the new minister.

Juda Agung, deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, added that payment service providers, “both banks and non-banks, must have fraud detection systems to identify accounts used for online gambling”.

In Indonesia, a ubiquitous problem

Though gambling is illegal in Indonesia, prohibition hasn’t dampened Indonesians’ love of a flutter. Figures published by ABC Asia indicate gamblers lost RP327 trillion (£16.2 billion/€19.5 billion/$20.5 billion) in 2023. That’s about 1.5% of annual gross domestic product.

To date this year, reports the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), online gambling has generated RP283 trillion. Deposits totalled RP43 trillion. Most of that money flows out of the country.

Community Empowerment minister Muhaimin Iskandar called online gambling a “social disaster”, according to Antara News Agency. He added that gamblers are “victims of online fraud”.

“If we do not overcome online gambling from upstream and downstream, this phenomenon will increase the poverty rate”, he said.

Education minister Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro added that about 960,000 online gamblers in the country are high-school and college students. And an estimated 80,000 are under the age of 10.

Two-pronged approach includes digital literacy

Iskander says the government is using a dual approach to eliminate online gambling. The first is digital scrutiny of internet traffic and financial transactions. The second is increasing awareness and digital literacy among Indonesians.

“We must educate the community that this fraud must be eliminated”, he said. “The grassroots community especially, do not be deceived by this practice”.