Indonesia Warns Payment Providers of Licence Loss Over Gambling QR Payments

According to ANTARA’s account of the press conference, the warning concerns payment service providers (PJPs) and merchant aggregators using the national QR payment system. Bank Indonesia outlined four areas of supervision but did not announce a new prohibition on QRIS payments.

Midnight Payments at a Closed Food Stall

Hendarta described a street-food seller whose stall had shut for the night. The merchant’s QRIS account was still receiving repeated payments of identical amounts around midnight. Such activity should be investigated, she said, because the transactions do not fit the business.

The deputy governor outlined four measures.

1. Merchant verification. Check business profiles, legal status and expected payment patterns before onboarding, then continue customer due diligence;
2. Transaction monitoring. Examine unusual amounts, timing and frequency, and use blacklists of merchants suspected of misuse;
3. Provider accountability. Restrict or suspend business operations, or revoke the licence of a PJP proven to be involved in illegal transactions;
4. Enforcement cooperation. Work with relevant authorities, ministries and law enforcement agencies to address QRIS misuse.

Payment providers were also told to monitor merchants after registration, including businesses whose transaction history no longer matches their original profile.

QRIS Gambling Deposits Averaged $3.46

Indonesia’s financial intelligence agency, PPATK, recorded 226.76 million identified online gambling deposit transactions worth Rp22.05 trillion ($1.23 billion) in January–June 2026, according to its August report.

The six-month figures break down as follows:

• QRIS. Rp12.36 trillion ($687.2 million) from 198.77 million deposit transactions;
• Bank accounts and e-wallets. Rp9.69 trillion ($538.8 million) from 27.99 million deposit transactions.

QRIS accounted for 87.66% of identified gambling deposit transactions, but 56.04% of their value.

Using the PPATK totals, 15M calculates an average QRIS deposit of about Rp62,200 ($3.46). Deposits via bank accounts and e-wallets averaged Rp346,200 ($19.25), about 5.6 times as much. The dollar equivalents use Bank Indonesia’s JISDOR reference rate of Rp17,986 per $1 on October 21.

PPATK recorded 94.5 million identified gambling deposit transactions in the first half of 2025, compared with 226.76 million a year later. The agency attributed part of the increase to better detection of smaller payments. Gambling networks were also splitting deposits into smaller amounts.

QRIS Reaches 49.4 Million Merchants

Bank Indonesia reported 70.6 million QRIS users and 49.4 million merchants in its October 21 monetary policy release. QRIS transaction volumes grew 75.8% year on year in the third quarter of 2026.

The central bank’s warning puts continuing merchant checks on the agenda for payment providers and aggregators. Hendarta did not name any provider facing licence withdrawal, and no revocation was announced at the October 21 briefing.