Jakarta. Indonesian authorities have frozen over 5,000 bank accounts linked to online gambling, with deposits totaling approximately Rp 600 billion ($36.2 million) in recent months, an official announced on Thursday.

The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) has played a key role in the government’s ongoing crackdown on online gambling, which began during President Joko Widodo’s second term. The agency has been tasked with identifying suspicious accounts and transactions and initiating freezes.

“We have frozen those accounts since February, and the National Police have followed up by blocking them,” PPATK Head Ivan Yustiavandana said in Jakarta.

The action followed the agency’s detection of suspicious domestic and international transfers allegedly connected to online gambling operators, Ivan added.

“The core objective of this law enforcement initiative is to protect the public from the social harms of online gambling, which often drives victims to drug trafficking, online fraud, and even prostitution in order to sustain their addiction. It can also lead to the breakdown of families,” he said.

The administration of President Prabowo Subianto has intensified anti-gambling efforts, removing nearly 900,000 pieces of online gambling-related content from various digital platforms by blocking websites and IP addresses, or taking down posts from social media.

Despite tighter enforcement, Indonesian authorities have observed a rising number of citizens voluntarily entering the online gambling industry abroad, especially in Cambodia, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

This trend is fueled by fraudsters and gambling operators who promote so-called “lucrative job offers” involving online scam operations in Southeast Asia. In many cases, however, the workers end up in conditions resembling forced labor, with little to no compensation.

Government data shows that more than 5,000 Indonesians have been rescued from international cybercrime syndicates operating in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam since 2020.

Many victims were lured with seemingly legitimate job offers in countries like Thailand, only to be trafficked into transnational scam networks in other countries.

In response, the Indonesian government has issued strong warnings to the public against accepting job offers in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand, citing the growing threat of human trafficking and exploitation under criminal syndicates.

“If you receive job offers from these countries, please exercise extreme caution -- many cases of human trafficking have been reported,” Migrant Worker Protection Minister Abdul Kadir Karding said last month.

He also noted that Indonesia does not have any formal migrant worker placement agreements with the three countries.