TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Some online gambling activities linked to money laundering, minister says
The communications minister told House Commission I on Monday that the PPATK had found links between online gambling and money laundering in its first-quarter review and defended his ministry's commitment to eradicating the illicit activity.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Stock illustration of online gambling (Shutterstock/Audio und werbung)
C
ommunications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi has alleged indications of money laundering in some online gambling activities traced by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in the first quarter.
“It is not just online gambling, because there are several cases [of money laundering] where they got the [illicit] money from winning in gambling,” Budi told a meeting on Monday with House of Representatives Commission I overseeing communications and information, defense, intelligence and foreign affairs.
The minister refrained from divulging any details about the cases he mentioned.
Earlier, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Hadi Tjahjanto revealed that PPATK’s findings that online gambling activities that took place in the January-March period reached a combined transactional value of Rp 100 trillion (US$ 6.1 billion), around one-third of the full-year transactional value of online gambling activities totaling Rp 327 trillion in 2023.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Commission I member Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party faction noted the staggering amount of economic losses due to online gambling and questioned the efforts taken by the communications ministry to eradicate the illegal activity.
Read also: Government declares war on online gambling as toll rises
