Jakarta. Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) has instructed banks across the country to block nearly 26,000 bank accounts suspected of being tied to online gambling activities, as part of a wider crackdown on a practice officials say is fueling social and economic harm.

“The OJK has instructed banks to freeze 25,912 accounts based on data provided by the Communication and Digital Affairs Ministry,” said Dian Ediana Rae, Chief Executive for Banking Supervision at OJK, on Monday.

The move aligns with the government's broader effort to stamp out illegal online gambling, which has become increasingly rampant and is believed to disproportionately affect low-income communities.

According to Dian, the OJK has asked banks to verify the identities of the account holders using Indonesia’s national ID number (NIK) system and to carry out enhanced due diligence (EDD) before permanently closing the accounts.

The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) previously reported that over 25,000 accounts had been flagged for links to online gambling between 2023 and early July 2025, with total funds across those accounts estimated at Rp 1 trillion (approx. $61 million).

OJK has also directed banks to step up their cybercrime detection capabilities and improve systems for identifying suspicious or potentially fraudulent financial transactions.

Meanwhile, Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf on Tuesday revealed another alarming statistic: around 600,000 recipients of government social assistance may be misusing the funds to participate in online gambling.

“These beneficiaries need to be educated to use the aid for its intended purpose -- not for gambling or other inappropriate uses,” Saifullah said during a visit to Ponorogo, East Java. “More than 600,000 social assistance recipients are suspected of playing online gambling. This is deeply concerning.”

The Social Affairs Ministry has already revoked assistance from 230,000 individuals proven to have misused the funds and is still investigating more than 300,000 additional cases, he said.

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