Criminal Responsibility Of Owners Of Cross-Country Online Gambling Platforms In The Indonesian Legal System (Decision StudyMedan High Court No. 1018/PID/2023/PT MDN)

Abstract

The development of information technology has shifted gambling practices from conventional forms to the digital sphere through websites and applications, giving rise to new patterns of crime that are fast, anonymous, and often involve infrastructure and controllers located outside Indonesia's jurisdiction. This situation creates serious challenges for law enforcement, particularly when the owners or controllers of online gambling platforms (operators/beneficial owners) are based abroad while the impacts and users are within Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the legal regulation of gambling offenses especially online gambling within Indonesia's criminal law system and to examine the obstacles and challenges of cross-border law enforcement against online gambling platform owners, including the possibility of extending criminal liability based on the principle of fault and the concept of liability for actors who control the means by which criminal acts are carried out. This research employs a normative legal approach with a descriptive qualitative legal research design. The approaches used include the statutory approach and the conceptual approach. The data are qualitative and derived from primary and secondary sources, with secondary data consisting of legislation, literature, and scholarly journals. Data collection is conducted through library research, while data analysis uses a descriptive-analytical method. The findings indicate that Indonesia's gambling regulatory framework is essentially available through the Criminal Code (KUHP) for conventional gambling and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (UU ITE) for gambling-related content in electronic systems, and it is further reinforced by the National Criminal Code (National Criminal Code) as part of criminal law reform. However, in a cross-border context, law enforcement faces major obstacles, including difficulties in identifying the true “owner” behind a platform, jurisdictional differences, the placement of servers and domains overseas, digital payment mechanisms that complicate financial tracing, and the need for international cooperation (MLA/extradition) that is not always effective in practice. Using the Theory of Criminal Liability as an analytical framework, platform owners/controllers who exercise control and obtain economic benefits may be positioned as accountable subjects, provided that fault (intent/negligence) and a real connection to their role in providing or making accessible gambling facilities can be proven. Therefore, stronger enforcement strategies based on digital evidence, clearer mapping of offender roles (operator, promoter/affiliate, fund collector), asset tracing (follow the money), and enhanced cross-border cooperation are required so that enforcement does not stop at field-level actors but reaches the platform's primary controllers.