Seven Arrested for Allegedly Running Online Gambling Syndicate

Farouk Arnaz

The National Police recently arrested six women and a man accused of running an online gambling ring in which they allegedly controlled operations with a daily turnover of Rp 50 million ($5,200).

A police officer was browsing online in September when he came across the website www.tangkasbet.com. The officer applied to become a member of the site to find out if real bets were being made.

“Apparently the website indeed offers online gambling,” the head of the National Police’s cyber crimes division, Adj. Sr. Comr. Winston Tommy Watuliu, said on Saturday.

According to Winston, players registered online and transferred money to get coins used for gambling. Afterward the player was able to play for monetary stakes in games like poker.

“The winning player would get coins while the loser lost their coins,” Winston said. “The coins could be exchanged for money and were transferred by the operator to the player’s bank account.”

Authorities traced the IP address of the website and on Oct. 18, police detectives raided a house located in Batam, Riau Islands, allegedly the gambling syndicate’s base of operations. The website registered 200 to 300 members in the Jakarta area.

Police found five women at the Batam residence: Dsa, Sryi, Lnh, Lwti and Elpa. They allegedly ran the Rp 50 million enterprise using just two computers.

Police also raided a different house in the same subdistrict, Lubuk Baja, owned by Missely, the alleged supervisor of the gambling outfit. The 20-year-old woman led authorities to a bookie named Sumarno, or Aheng, who was living in Cengkareng, Banten.

All seven were arrested and charged with violating multiple articles on gambling, electronic information and transactions, and money laundering.