Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Communication and Information said it had proposed closing 555 e-wallet or electronic wallet accounts that were indicated to be affiliated with online gambling activities. Minister of Communication and Information, Budi Arie Setiadi, said that his party can identify e-wallet accounts that are used as online gambling transactions from a number of characteristics.
“The characteristic is that e-wallets are one-way,” said Budi Arie in a press conference, Friday, (24/5/2024).
He said e-wallet accounts were used as a means by online gambling companies to collect money from their consumers. He likens e-wallet accounts to collectors.
“So the funds collected by the transactions are only one way, so the collector's account is what we consider to be an e-wallet for online gambling,” he said.
He said online gambling transactions were not only carried out via e-wallet, but also bank accounts. He said Kominfo had submitted a request to block 5,364 bank accounts related to online gambling with the Financial Services Authority from September 17 2023 to May 22 2024.
Budi also explained that the transaction value related to online gambling was very worrying. In 2023, he said, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) recorded the number of transactions related to online gambling reaching IDR 327 trillion.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2024, the number of transactions related to online gambling has reached IDR 100 trillion.
He said the large number of transactions indicated that the practice of online gambling was still widespread in Indonesia. He said the large number of transactions also indicated suspicions of money laundering through this practice.
“In various analyzes we see that there are other things regarding the transaction value, including indications of money laundering,” he said.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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