JAKARTA - Police are tracing the network behind an alleged cross-border gambling operation at Hayam Wuruk Plaza Tower, Indonesia’s state-owned news agency Antara reported on May 11.
Brigadier General Wira Satya Triputra said investigators are looking at the money trail, the sponsors behind the operation and the tenants linked to the office space. “We will coordinate with relevant agencies to investigate both the flow of funds and their sponsors,” he said.
Police transferred 320 foreign nationals to the Directorate General of Immigration under the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections on May 10, according to Antara. They are being held at immigration detention centers in West Jakarta and Kuningan, South Jakarta, while police proceedings continue.
The group included 228 Vietnamese, 57 Chinese, 13 Myanmar, 11 Laotian, five Thai, three Malaysian and three Cambodian nationals. One Indonesian citizen was handled separately by police, after an earlier police count listed 321 people arrested in the operation.
Police said the suspects were detained on May 7 after public tips led investigators to the alleged operation. In a previous report, Antara said authorities seized passports, phones, laptops, computers, safes and cash, and identified around 75 internet domains and websites suspected of facilitating online gambling.
“This was conducted in a structured manner, using electronic systems and organized cross-border digital operations,” Triputra said. In a separate May 9 report, Antara said police seized Rp1.9 billion, 53.82 million Vietnamese dong and US$10,210.
Indonesia’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, or PPATK, said in January 2026 that online gambling money circulation in Indonesia reached Rp286.84 trillion in 2025, across 422.1 million transactions, down 20 percent from Rp359.81 trillion in 2024.
Deposits alone still reached Rp36.01 trillion, with 12.3 million people placing deposits through banks, e-wallets and QRIS, according to PPATK’s latest full-year data.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has described the wider regional model in similar terms. In a January 2024 report summary, the UN agency said illegal online casinos, e-junkets and crypto exchanges have become part of the underground banking and money-laundering infrastructure in East and Southeast Asia.
