Gambling in Indonesia
Online gambling is a very popular pastime for many Indonesian residents. However, with local websites banned in the country, it is often necessary to access foreign sites. These include poker, casino and sports betting websites.
Although the rest of Asia is reportedly seeing a boom in the industry, Indonesia continues to ban online gambling. Following the huge amount of money reportedly being bet on the Euro 2012 football tournament, the government introduced laws to make all online gambling sites illegal. These are based on the belief that gambling is forbidden by Islam.
The ministry of communications and information partnered with telecommunications providers to block access to online gambling content. They also aim to stop consumers, influencers and affiliates from promoting the activity. It can be a tough challenge, though, given that the internet is very resilient to policing, and a variety of tools are available that circumvent standard IP blocks.
Gambling in indonesia is not without risk, either. The country is over 85% Muslim, and the strict rules of their religion prohibit any kind of illegal activities such as gambling or betting. They can lead to heavy fines or even a public caning. There are a number of horror stories about this, especially from the northern province of Aceh, where gambling has been strictly prohibited and punished by brutal canings. It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of Indonesians are not actually imprisoned or caned for gambling.