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Police said the Indians entered Indonesia on tourist visas and had promoted and managed transactions for an online gambling site since late last year.
AFP
An Indonesian court on Wednesday jailed dozens of Indian nationals for their role in a Bali online gambling operation, which is illegal in the Muslim-majority country. Most received two years in prison, while two received two and a half years.
Why were Indians jailed in the Bali online gambling case?
Police said the group entered Indonesia on tourist visas and had promoted and managed transactions for an online gambling site since late last year. Police arrested 39 Indian nationals at two Bali villas in February and charged 35 of them. Gambling is illegal in Indonesia, with punishments extended to bookmakers, punters, those who promote gambling content online and gamblers themselves.
What sentences did the Bali court hand down?
Presiding judge Putu Gde Novyartha found the men guilty in a Wednesday hearing. He sentenced most of them to two years behind bars and two of them to two and a half years.
The judge also ordered "the defendants to be deported after serving the sentence... and once the sentence has been completed, the defendants are prohibited from visiting the territory of the Republic of Indonesia."
How much money did the online gambling operation make?
Police said the operation brought in up to eight billion rupiah (about $450,000) a month. Official data showed that turnover linked to online gambling in Indonesia reached more than 280 trillion rupiah last year.
More than 12 million of the country's 287 million citizens are estimated to be engaged in the illicit activity, most of them as gamblers.
What is Indonesia doing about foreigners arrested for illegal gambling?
Authorities said in May they would review the visa-free entry policy for nationals of Southeast Asian countries. The review followed a string of arrests of foreigners accused of running illegal gambling and scam operations.
Investigators have found that many of those allegedly involved in an illegal gambling center in Jakarta had entered Indonesia using visa waivers or applied for permits on arrival.
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