Government introduces regulations to track accounts linked to online gambling

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JAKARTA (ANTARA) – Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Director General of the Information Application Department of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information, said a new regulation will authorize the ministry to track financial accounts related to online gambling and propose blocking these accounts.

He added that the Draft Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 on the Implementation of Electronic Systems and Transactions, which will give the ministry this power, is currently being prepared for revision.

“We have the power to apply to freeze financial accounts, whether it’s a bank account or an e-wallet (digital wallet) used for gambling transactions,” he said on Friday.

Pangelapan said the ministry’s actions so far have been limited to blocking domain names and IP addresses of websites or applications related to online gambling.

However, he said these measures were considered insufficient to address the problem and more action was needed, such as tracing and blocking funding channels.

Pangelapan further explained that the main target of financial account blocking is gamblers’ accounts, and by locking key accounts, it is hoped that gambling transactions can be curbed.

He said the ministry would be responsible for tracking financial accounts used to deposit online gambling transactions.

Meanwhile, the power to freeze financial accounts remains with Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

Pangerapan informed that digital wallets will also be an important target as the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDP) require platforms, such as digital wallet providers, to record or verify account owners.

This new phenomenon shows that official financial accounts are often used for illegal activities without the knowledge of the owner. Therefore, digital wallet operators need to be cautious when collecting data.

“We have to be careful about registering data with e-wallet organizers. Users must be verified when opening an e-wallet account,” he said.

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