Surreal Football

Bet on a football match and get seven lashes

While most of the world is provided the luxury of betting whenever they feel like it, this is something that is not afforded to certain nations. Indonesia is one of these and due to the strict Muslim laws surrounding gambling, residents of the country have to conjure up creative concepts to try and gamble on their favourite sports.

What are the current sports betting laws in Indonesia?

To put it simply, if you are caught gambling in Indonesia you could be imprisoned for a maximum of ten years. Moreover, it’s not just Muslims who have to abide by such laws, but also any other people who are based in the country. For example, there was a case involving a Chinese non-Muslim man who was found to be betting and he was promptly punished with a four month prison sentence. Considering the fact that he had played just one card game worth $5.50, it highlights just how serious the consequences for betting in Indonesia are.

Unfortunately, the stories don’t just stop there. There was a case in 2011 of several Muslims being found guilty of being part of a gambling establishment and they were punished with seven strikes from a 1-meter cane under Sharia Law.

Bearing the above in mind, many Indonesian’s don’t see the point in risking any type of gambling and simply close it out of their lives. However, with the country boasting a population of 242 million, it’s no surprise that some individuals do run the risk and try and profit from the highly lucrative sports betting industry.

How do Indonesians gamble?

As you may have guessed from the above, it is practically impossible to locate a betting shop on the local high street and advance to place a bet. We say “practically” impossible, as there are some illegal betting rings in some areas, although it is probably worth staying well away from such organisations if you value your freedom.

Following on from this, the only solution for Indonesians is to bet online. This is still illegal, but there are at least several precautions that can be put into place to try and keep their activities secret.

How do Indonesians bet online?

There are a variety of methods that Indonesians use to place their sports bets online. The first is to simply use an Asian bookmaker and just like many of the international brands, these companies generally offer a betting bonus and other incentives to entice users to their platform. However, generally users will require a Bank Central Asia account and while some Indonesians will possess such an account, many others won’t.

For this reason, a lot tend to frequent the European bookmakers. Despite the betting laws in Indonesia, a lot of these companies still accept the Indonesian currency as a form of payment - although strangely they may not accept deposits from an Indonesian bank account. For this reason, a lot of users come up with creative deposit methods and most revolve around e-wallet payments. This will generally involve opening up an e-wallet account, depositing some money into it before then using the platform to pay for the betting session. Admittedly, most of the time these deposits arrive with a minor charge, yet it is undoubtedly the safest and easiest way for Indonesian’s to bet online.

An overview of sports betting offers in Indonesia

As you can see, Indonesians are severely limited when it comes to sports betting. While Asian bookmakers can be an option and they do generally provide some betting offers, the fact that there are not many of these websites available means that it can be hard to accumulate an arsenal of offers. This means that it’s much easier to turn to more creative means and utilise European bookmakers. By doing this, Indonesians can then profit from the entire bonus offers that most people in the world are accustomed to.

Liam is an online sports journalist who knows how to get his hands on a few horse racing free bets when he fancies making a little cash from the bookies.