4 Busted For Online Gambling In Jakarta

Published: Thursday, January 08, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

4 BUSTED FOR ONLINE GAMBLING IN JAKARTA

But police admit they have difficulty in monitoring the pastime

The Jakarta Post reports that local police have busted four individuals in a raid on an Internet cafe suspected of being used to provide Internet gambling facilities. The four suspects were named as Sri Nauli Yuniar Pohan, Tony Thamrin, Kristianto and Mohamad Saleh.

Police confiscated two PCs, a flash disk and Rp 500 000. (about US$ 454) in the operation, which was conducted in late December.

"We are hunting down the suspected mastermind in the case, named Tjoeng Fo Seng, who managed to escape arrest," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Achmad Rivai, who heads the city police mobile detective unit.

He added all suspects could face five years in prison if found guilty.

The four busted men were perhaps unfortunate, given subsequent statements by police officials indicating that they faced serious manpower and equipment problems when it comes to tracking down Internet gambling players and operators.

Jambi City Police chief Snr. Comr. Eko Daniyanto revealed that the police faced too many challenges trying to trace gamblers who used the Internet for sportsbetting, which he said was a widespread habit in Jambi city. The police also lacked the surfing skills required as well as access to up-to-date hardware.

"We have no special room for surfing to trace the user names and passwords of the gamblers," the police officer revealed. "The passwords change often. So we haven't been able to track them."