Gambling in Indonesia – Using a VPN
Gambling in Indonesia is strictly illegal and can land you in serious trouble. However, there are ways to play online without breaking the law. Using a VPN is one way to protect yourself, although it should not be used for purely gambling purposes.
Indonesia lies between two continents (Asia and Oceania) and is a chain of 17,500 islands separated into 34 provinces. It has strong commercial ties with Asia and a number of Western countries, but its government has gone to considerable lengths to prohibit all forms of gambling.
The country’s strict gambling laws are a direct result of the Muslim religion, which is practised by 85% of its population. The religion considers all forms of gambling to be immoral and sacrilegious.
It is therefore hardly surprising that Indonesia’s government has taken such a strict approach to online gambling. In fact, in 2012 the ministry of Social Affairs and Religious Affairs announced that they were planning to implement new legislation making all kinds of online gambling illegal.
As a result, Indonesians who wish to gamble can only do so on international websites. These include a wide range of casino games, poker and bingo.
Many of these international sites accept payment methods in Rupiah, but some also offer alternative currencies such as US Dollars or Euros. The vast majority of these sites also accept a number of e-wallets, including PayPal and Neteller, as well as Paysafecard.
Despite the country’s strict laws, many Indonesians still enjoy playing their favourite casino games and sports betting online. In the past few years, the government has taken steps to block local gambling websites, but this is proving difficult to enforce. In addition, some players are using a VPN to protect themselves from online censorship. This is because it is much more difficult to block a user’s internet connection than to identify them by their IP address.