TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo admits to the difficulty of tracing overseas assets of online gambling dealers. 

“Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where the perpetrators are investing abroad, making it difficult for us,” he said during a work meeting with the DPR’s Commission III on Monday, November 11, 2024.

Sigit attributes the difficulty to the varied legality of gambling in the international landscape. Nevertheless, he said, Indonesian authorities will uphold Indonesian law and thoroughly investigate online gambling, including confiscating and handing over their assets to the state. 

Online gambling is illegal under the Indonesian legal system. 

He hopes to thoroughly investigate online gambling issues down to the dealers. Sigit hopes to at least recover assets and money that can be returned to the state. “We are trying to conduct police-to-police collaboration with overseas authorities,” he said.

The police also work with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) for intelligence data that supports the police investigation. 

PPATK previously claimed to be able to identify fund flows such as crypto assets and stop online gambling transactions but faced similar obstacles with the police once the transactions were held beyond Indonesia’s legal jurisdiction.

Deputy Analysis and Investigation of PPATK, Danang Tri Hartono, said his team had identified illegal fund flows transferred to approximately 1.8 trillion crypto assets in 2024. “Most of it is from fraud,” he said at a hearing with the DPR’s Commission III on November 6.

Danang said PPATK is able to trace wallet-to-wallet crypto exchanges. “But once the exchanger is outside of Indonesia’s jurisdiction, the legal issue arises,” he said.

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