Indonesian government suspends social aid for 1.5 million families flagged for online gambling

The government’s decision to halt aid comes amid a broader crackdown on the rapid expansion of digital gambling within low-income communities. Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf confirmed on Sunday, August 9, 2026, that approximately 1.5 million beneficiary families had been identified in a recent data sweep. Among these, 794,475 families are also enrolled in the Family Hope Program, a conditional cash transfer initiative designed to support the nation’s poorest households.

Investigation into Misused State Funds

The ministry is currently collaborating with the PPATK and the Communications and Digital Ministry to verify whether these beneficiaries used social assistance funds to participate in online gambling. This verification process is part of a larger effort to update the National Integrated Social Economic Data (DTSEN), which is intended to improve the accuracy of social aid distribution.

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“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.”

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Surge in Suspicious Financial Transactions

The number of flagged families represents a significant rise from previous efforts to clean up beneficiary databases. In 2025, a similar data-matching exercise identified approximately 600,000 households with links to online gambling. Regulatory data highlights the scale of the issue, with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) reporting that suspicious transactions linked to gambling surged 260 percent last year.

Period	Share of Online Gambling in Suspicious Transactions
December 2024	18.37 percent
First Quarter 2025	35.28 percent
December 2025	48.83 percent

Education and Outreach Efforts

Beyond the immediate suspension of funds, the Social Affairs Ministry is scaling up its outreach through a network of PKH facilitators and social support workers. The ministry is emphasizing the importance of digital literacy to prevent beneficiaries from having their accounts exploited by third parties.

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“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.”

Law Enforcement and Network Funding

The government’s move against aid recipients coincides with increased pressure on the National Police to dismantle the broader infrastructure of online gambling. Following a raid in early May that uncovered a network operating 75 gambling websites from a single office building in West Jakarta, lawmakers are urging investigators to trace the funding flows and identify the primary financiers behind such operations.