Minister of Communication and Information Limits Credit Transfers to a Maximum of IDR 1 Million Per Day to Eradicate Online Gambling

Todaysgist.com, Jakarta – Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi said that his party will start limiting the amount of credit that can be transferred from one cellphone number to another cellphone number.

The amount of credit that can be transferred by the owner of the cellphone number is limited to a maximum of IDR 1 million per day. According to Budi Arie, this was done because the Online Gambling Task Force suspected online gambling using credit.

“The government will provide regulations, the maximum credit transfer is only IDR 1 million per day. Because it is suspected that online gambling uses credit. Is it true, in one day there can be IDR 100 million to IDR 2 billion in credit transfers, it can be overwhelming for that phone call,” said Budi Arie, when meeting the Advanced Indonesian Women’s Creativity Community, at the Kominfo Office, Thursday (1/8/2024).

Budi Arie also revealed that verbally the rules regarding the limitation of the amount of credit transferred had been conveyed to cellular operators such as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Telkomsel, XL Axiata, and Smartfren.

“This policy has been implemented since yesterday, so the goal is to prevent credit from being used as a commodity for online gambling,” he said.

The purpose of limiting the amount of credit that can be transferred, according to Budi Arie, is to avoid credit being used as currency for online gambling (judol). The reason is that so far there have been credit transfer transactions that are unreasonable in amount, starting from IDR 100 million to IDR 2 billion.

Budi Arie also explained the mechanism to limit credit transfers to a maximum of only IDR 1 million per day after the Ministry of Communication and Information discussed it with cellular operators.

“We have discussed with cellular operators, later there will be something called whitelistwhich is on the list whitelist “They are real credit agents or dealers, they are okay with transferring IDR 100 million or IDR 200 million, because the direction is clear, for credit trading,” said Budi Arie.

Meanwhile, the number did not enter whitelist and making transfers in large amounts is prohibited for transferring credit in amounts of more than IDR 1 million.

“The ones with limitations are those whose numbers are not in whitelist and used for credit transactions indicated for online gambling,” he said.

Previously, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), online gambling transactions per 2023 reached IDR 327 trillion. Apparently it was later discovered that in addition to using accounts or e-wallet accounts, online gambling bookies also use credit as a method of online gambling transactions.

Budi Arie also revealed that Kominfo continues to block online gambling content on the internet.

Kominfo data, from July 17, 2023 to July 30, 2024, Kominfo has removed or taken down 2,725,000 online gambling content on the internet. The government also closed 513 e-wallets and almost 7,000 bank accounts suspected of being used for online gambling transactions.