Online Gambling Practices Are Marak, OJK Asks Fintech Lending To Anticipate

JAKARTA - Online gambling practices in Indonesia are still rampant as reflected in the Financial Services Authority (OJK) report which revealed that 4,921 accounts were allegedly involved in online gambling activities. In addition, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) recorded that total online gambling transactions in Indonesia reached Rp100 trillion in the first quarter of 2024.

The Chief Executive of the Financing Institution, Ventura Capital Company, Micro Financial Institution and Other Financial Services Institutions OJK Agusman said that his party had asked fintech peer to peer (P2P) lending providers to implement a number of steps to anticipate this practice.

"In addition, developing and completing information technology infrastructure to detect the activity in question," he said in a written sheet of RDK OJK, quoted Thursday, June 13.

Agusman added that his party also asked the organizers to report activities including suspicious transactions and allegedly related to economic crimes and continue to increase literacy to the public.

Previously, the OJK Board of Commissioners Mahendra Siregar said that this step to block accounts was an effort to eradicate online gambling activities in order to maintain the stability of the financial services sector.

In addition, Mahendra conveyed that related to the eradication of online gambling which had a broad impact on the economy and financial sector, this step was also included in supporting the online gambling task force which was recently formed by President Joko Widodo, led by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Hadi Tjahjanto.

"We blocked 4,921 accounts from the data we received from the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo)," Mahendra explained at a press conference on the results of the OJK Board of Commissioners Meeting in May 2024, Monday, June 10.

Mahendra conveyed and related to banks by asking banks to also actively work on customer identification files.

"OJK has instructed banks to verify, identify, and Enhanced Due Dilligency (EDD) including tracing and profiling of the list of names of account owners who are indicated to have made transactions related to online gambling," he said.

From all the identification and blocking of accounts, OJK will then include a list of customer accounts related to online gambling transactions into the Information System for the Anti-Money Laundering and Prevention of Terrorism Financing (SIGAP) Program, so that it can be accessed by all financial service institutions and narrow the space for online gamblers to move and overcome asymmetric information in the financial services sector.

Mahendra conveyed that preventive efforts were also carried out in terms of public education related to online gambling and asked the financial services industry to proactively identify and verify accounts with suspicious transactions including online gambling activities.