PPATK Freezes Rp 2 Trillion in Social Aid Accounts Linked to Online Gambling
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JAKARTA, investortrust.id — Indonesia’s anti-money laundering watchdog has frozen more than Rp 2 trillion ($122 million) in social assistance funds after detecting widespread misuse of government subsidies, including for online gambling, across millions of bank accounts.
The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) said it blocked accounts belonging to recipients who did not meet eligibility criteria, with many accounts showing signs of suspicious or illegal activity.
“More than Rp 2 trillion in social aid funds has been frozen, stemming from millions of accounts held by ineligible beneficiaries,” said PPATK spokesperson M. Natsir Kongah in an official statement on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
PPATK identified several red flags during the account analysis, including balances far exceeding the expected profile of social aid recipients, dormant accounts that had not been used for over five years but continued to receive transfers, and accounts that showed no transactional activity apart from incoming funds from the government.
Natsir said some of the aid money had been used for “illegal activities such as online gambling,” prompting the agency to act swiftly.
The findings were based on an ongoing audit of accounts at one state-owned bank, with investigations underway at three other members of the Association of State-Owned Banks (Himpunan Bank Milik Negara or Himbara).
PPATK used rapid matching techniques by cross-referencing National Identity Numbers (NIKs). Out of 28.4 million aid recipients reviewed, over 9.7 million NIKs belonged to individuals previously identified as online gamblers in 2024.
“We discovered 571,410 matching NIKs. This indicates that approximately 2% of social aid recipients were also engaged in online gambling last year,” Natsir said.
The total deposits into gambling platforms made by these recipients amounted to Rp 957 billion ($58.5 million) across 7.5 million transactions in 2024 alone.
The highest concentrations of social aid recipients engaging in online gambling were found in West Java, Central Java, and South Sumatra.