Indonesia arrests 321 foreigners in online gambling raid, Reuters says

Indonesian police say a raid on an office building in the Hayam Wuruk area of Jakarta uncovered an online gambling operation run by 321 foreign nationals, a case that now looks less like a local bust than a regional cybercrime network using Indonesia as a base.

The arrests were carried out by the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, known as Bareskrim, together with the Jakarta Metropolitan Police. Officers said the suspects included 228 people from Vietnam, 57 from China, 13 from Myanmar, 11 from Laos, five from Thailand and three from Cambodia. Police also said the operation had been running for about two months and had a digital footprint of roughly 75 internet domains and websites used to funnel bettors into the scheme.

Authorities said 275 of the detained foreigners were accused under Indonesia’s gambling laws, which can carry a maximum sentence of nine years. The case underscores how online gambling has become a cross-border enterprise built on office space, telemarketing crews, finance staff and internet infrastructure rather than the casinos and storefronts of older illicit markets. Indonesian media reported that the suspects used telemarketing to promote the gambling sites, targeting customers outside Indonesia while operating from inside the country.

The raid fits a broader enforcement pattern that has intensified across Indonesia. Officials have blocked millions of gambling-related items online over the past year, including 2,945,150 gambling sites from July 2023 to June 13, 2024. By May 21, 2024, the government said it had removed 1,904,246 gambling contents, blocked 5,364 accounts and shut down 555 e-wallets. That campaign has widened from content takedowns to coordinated action against the infrastructure that keeps the schemes moving money and recruiting workers.

Two days earlier, immigration authorities on Batam island arrested 210 foreign nationals in a separate online investment fraud case. That operation led to the seizure of 131 computers, 93 laptops, 492 mobile phones, 52 monitors, network equipment, money-counting machines and 198 passports. The detainees reportedly included 125 Vietnamese nationals, 84 Chinese nationals and one person from Myanmar, with 47 women among them.

Taken together, the Jakarta and Batam raids point to an enforcement shift inside Indonesia, where officials are increasingly treating online gambling and scam operations as interconnected transnational syndicates. Interpol Indonesia has said such networks are moving from Cambodian cities into Indonesia, a sign that regional pressure is pushing cyber-enabled crime across borders rather than ending it.