In 2025, for millions of online gambling players in Indonesia, it was a year of continuously tightening funds. The once abundant flow of gambling funds is being gradually drained by layers of government blockades.
➡️ According to the latest data from the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the total volume of funds related to online gambling in 2025 was Rp286.84 trillion (about $19 billion), down a full 20% from Rp359.81 trillion in 2024. The total deposits also dropped from Rp51.3 trillion to Rp36.01 trillion, involving 422.1 million transactions.
Why has the flow of funds significantly decreased? Have Indonesian players really decreased, or are Indonesian players betting more cautiously? Or is it for other reasons?
💸 Layered regulatory blockades, account freezing cuts off payments
It all started with bank accounts, since 2024, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) has cumulatively frozen over 33,252 gambling-related bank accounts, with 1,000 new freezes on April 13, 2026 alone. OJK bank supervisor Dian Ediana Rae stated outright that these accounts are warehouses of illegal funds and must be decisively cut off.
OJK regulatory requirements demand that all banks implement enhanced due diligence (EDD). Once suspicious transactions are detected—such as frequent small transfers, large nighttime flows, or foreign IP associations—they must be immediately frozen and reported. Many ordinary accounts used for daily transfers, lent to "account merchants" or occasionally used for betting, are also locked, making funds inaccessible.
At the same time, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs has blocked over 1.3 million gambling-related contents. Although VPNs can bypass some websites, the payment stage remains the biggest bottleneck. E-wallets and QRIS codes are under close surveillance, and although many platforms have turned to cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrencies were included in a new ban at the beginning of 2026. Funds are easy to deposit but hard to withdraw, directly leading to a decrease in betting amounts and overall circulation.
In the first quarter of 2025, the volume of funds circulation dropped sharply from Rp90 trillion in the same period of 2024 to Rp47 trillion, a nearly 50% decrease, with some reports showing a circulation of Rp155 trillion in the first three quarters, a year-on-year decrease of 57%.
👤 The number of users has also decreased, but resilience remains
And indeed, there are really fewer Indonesian players. PPATK data shows that although about 12.3 million people still deposited gambling funds through various channels in 2025, compared to other reports, the number of active core players has significantly decreased.
Some official statistics show that there were about 9.7 million participants in 2024, which dropped to about 3.1 million by 2025, a decrease of 68%. The low-income group (those earning less than 5 million Indonesian rupiah per month, accounting for 71%) was the most impacted.
🔴 A Jakarta office worker said in an interview: "Before, friends in my circle would post screenshots of winning money every day, but now everyone is complaining about accounts being blocked and money being inaccessible. Before, I could transfer millions in one night, but now I try just tens of thousands at most, and I dare not recharge after losing."
Although the tide of funds has receded, the gray market remains active, just becoming more secretive. The business of underground "account merchants" is booming, with some specializing in buying and selling second-hand real-name accounts; VPN + cryptocurrency combinations have become the standard for betting; foreign servers (often associated with Southeast Asian neighboring countries) rapidly switch domain names.
In 2026, the Indonesian government's attitude remains tough, with more account freezes and comprehensive fintech monitoring set to unfold. The annual volume of funds circulation is expected to remain low, but in a market as large as Indonesia's 270 million population, there are always loopholes.
The significant decrease in the flow of funds is behind the significant compression of the gray market. In the long term, only by addressing regulatory pressures or significantly changing the financial literacy of Indonesian users can funds be redirected back into circulation.
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