PPATK Predicts Number Of Online Gambling Players Will Reach 11 Million By The End Of The Year

JAKARTA - The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) predicts that the number of online gambling players in Indonesia by the end of 2024 will reach 11 million players.

This statement was delivered directly by the Deputy for Analysis and Audit of PPATK Danang Tri Hartono at a public discussion organized by the Technology Journalists Forum (Forwat) x DANA "Breaking the Online Gambling Chain for a Healthy Digital Ecosystem".

"In 2023, we identified 3.4 million players. Yesterday's quarter (Q3) was around 8.8 million. And maybe by the end of the year it could be over 11 million players," said Danang on Friday, November 29.

Furthermore, Danang also revealed that the number of online gambling transactions until Q3 2024 reached IDR 43 trillion. This number increased by approximately IDR 10 trillion compared to 2023 which reached IDR 34 trillion.

According to Danang, the current increase in the number of transactions and online gambling players in Indonesia is due to the large number of payment platforms used and also the low deposit requirements provided.

"Say for operations, to pay for the 10 percent victory is more than IDR 30 trillion., You can imagine that much money, say for operations, buying and selling accounts, admins, just give me a win line, only 10 percent, I'm sure below that. You can imagine how big it is," continued Danang.

With this huge profit potential, Danang admitted that he was not surprised that online bookies were still flooding and ensnaring the Indonesian people.

Meanwhile, the government is increasingly intensive, including PPATK, Bank Indonesia (BI) in blocking accounts and e-wallets that have been detected as being used for online gambling transactions, the perpetrators have also begun to change their payment trend.

According to Danang, from the initial one via bank account transfer, they switched to transfer via e-wallet, and switched again to using QRIS, until they finally used a more anonymous crypto asset.

"In 2023, the deposit was mostly banking, transfers, then shifted to e-wallet. It started to be heavily stopped, they are now sliding to the aggregator's merchant, namely QRIS. Now that they are identified, they change again. They use crypto exchangers, using a falas. So if it's a falas, it's a break up. They really aim to decide not to find out who they really are, "he concluded.