Officials in the Indonesian province of West Java have issued an urgent appeal to civil servants after discovering over a thousand government employees gambling online.
The Bandung Regency’s Representative Council has revealed data showing 1,066 civil servants residing in Bandung Regency placed illegal online wagers in 2025, spending a combined total of over $373,000.
Per the council’s data, that represents a 74% rise on 2024 figures, when it found that 613 civil servants had placed illegal bets. Illegal deposits on betting sites also rose 20% from 2024’s $312,000.
The council said it is working to confirm the accuracy of the data. But it added that it would seek severe punishment for any public officials found guilty of online gambling.
“The council demands that anyone found guilty faces prosecution. We will take decisive action,” a council spokesperson said, per the Indonesian media outlet Bale Bandung. “To any civil servants who are still gambling: Stop now. Don’t wait to be summoned or questioned.”
Indonesia launched a sweeping crackdown on online gambling in 2023. This has since intensified after police unveiled a massive protection racket involving central government officials who took money from online gambling operators to save their sites from a purge.
Courts have the power to jail illegal gamblers for up to five years. They can also imprison operators for up to 10 years.
Indonesian courts have also waged war on young female social media influencers who promote illegal gambling sites on Instagram, jailing several women for up to two years.
Indonesian Online Gambling Crackdown: Investigations Ongoing
The council said it has asked investigators to carry out the verification process “as quickly as possible.”
“There must be no cover-ups, and no one must be protected,” the spokesperson said.
The official added that the investigation would help “maintain the integrity of and public trust in the Bandung Regency Government.”
The central government has recently claimed its crackdown has enjoyed partial success, with the total amount of illegal deposits made to gambling platforms in the first half of 2026 dropping by almost 13%.
However, the same dataset revealed that while the crackdown has reduced the amount of money illegal gamblers spend online, total transactions rose by over 167% in the same period.
To date, Jakarta says, the government has detected evidence of illegal gambling-related transactions worth almost $5 billion.
Many Schools Unequipped to Fight Online Gambling – Survey
Meanwhile, some say many Indonesian public bodies and private sector companies are ill-equipped to fight illegal gambling.
Their claims are backed up by a recent survey from the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII), and reported by the Indonesian media outlet Good Stats.
The authors of the study focused on over 300 educational institutions across 38 provinces, conducting face-to-face interviews and using multistage random sampling.
The APJII found that 40% of the educational bodies “do not yet have digital literacy pertaining to online gambling.”
The survey also found that less than a third of these schools and colleges conduct regular online gambling awareness programs.
The remainder have developed the required digital literacy to conduct programs, but have yet to launch them.
The survey also found evidence of “large-scale” gambling among students and staff at 3% of the schools.
A further 8% of educational institutions said they had found evidence of “small-scale” online gambling. And 14% said they were “unaware” if their students or employees gambled online.
Earlier this year, the Social Affairs Ministry announced it had suspended or permanently ended benefits payments to around 1.5 million families.
The families were all receiving basic food program support. But the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center said it had found evidence that they had used their bank accounts to place online bets.
The center also said it detected a sharp rise in sports betting during the World Cup. Soccer betting remains extremely popular in the country despite the crackdown.
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