1.5m families in Indonesia lose aid over gambling

JAKARTA — The Social Affairs Ministry of Indonesia has suspended the distribution of social assistance to nearly 1.5 million beneficiary families enrolled in the basic food program after data cross-referencing the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, or PPATK, flagged their accounts for online gambling transactions.

Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf confirmed earlier in August that around 1.5 million beneficiary families had been identified in the latest data sweep.

Among them, 794,475 families were also recipients of the Family Hope Program, or PKH, a conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at the country's poorest households.

Aid disbursement to all flagged recipients has been temporarily frozen pending a verification process.

"There are 1,494,652 beneficiary families flagged for online gambling, based on data we received from the PPATK. We are currently investigating and examining the matter further," Saifullah said, as quoted by Bisnis.com.

The staggering figure marks a sharp increase over the 2025 data-matching exercise, which identified approximately 600,000 beneficiary families with transactions linked to online gambling.

The ministry now faces mounting pressure to tighten oversight of the multitrillion-rupiah social protection programs.

The Financial Services Authority has revealed that, based on reports submitted by lenders to the PPATK, activities with suspected links to online gambling surged 260 percent last year.

The share of suspected online gambling activities among all reported suspicious transactions rose from 18.37 percent in December 2024 to 48.83 percent in December 2025, while the figure stood at 35.28 percent as of the first quarter last year.

The probe will also form part of a broader effort to update the national integrated social economic data, a centralized database designed to improve the accuracy of social assistance targeting.

"They may no longer meet the criteria for receiving social assistance. There is evidence that the aid is being used for online gambling. We are investigating this further, which also serves as part of our data-updating process," he said.

Digital literacy

Saifullah stressed the importance of digital literacy and personal accountability among aid recipients, warning against negligence that could enable account misuse.

"People must not be careless, for instance, by letting others use or exploit their accounts. We consistently provide outreach, education and support to beneficiaries through these social support workers. We are doing this continuously," he added.

The crackdown underscores the government's growing concern over the rampant spread of online gambling, which has increasingly penetrated low-income communities.

Questions are mounting over the key figure behind the sponsorship of a Jakarta-based online gambling network, following early May's raid that uncovered hundreds of people operating across 75 domains and gambling websites from an office building in the heart of a business district in West Jakarta.

Lawmakers have urged the police to deepen their investigation into the network's funding flows as investigators are scrambling to find the financiers behind the gambling ring.

THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA