Indonesia police mistake Gameloft office for illegal gambling den

A big surprise happened in the Gameloft Indonesia office in Yogyakarta yesterday. Employees were going about their daily development and testing routines when undercover police arrived to inspect the office. These undercover cops tried to force their way past security without a warrant. A second batch of policemen, now armed with an official warrant and in uniform, reached the office soon after.

The police visit to one of Indonesia’s biggest mobile game companies happened because local residents were reporting that the building is secretly an online gambling den. Obviously, it proved to be a false alarm. According to local news site Tribun Jogja, Police Commissioner Aryuniwati confirms the attempted bust. It turns out the investigation was done just to investigate the residents’ reports. After determining that the information was wrong and Gameloft Indonesia wasn’t actually a gambling den, the cops immediately left the building.

This event definitely shocked employees. Tweets and Facebook posts regarding the bust can be seen on some Gameloft employees’ accounts. According to these posts, the cops reportedly questioned staff about what prizes they earn for winning the games they were playing – the same games going through QA and development pipelines.

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Another tweet stated a policeman even punched building security in the face while trying to get in without warrant. This was corroborated by several employees. We are still waiting for official confirmation from Gameloft regarding any damages caused by the bust.

Hopefully this mistake will let Indonesians understand what game development really means, instead of assuming that anything with the word game in its name means it is a gambling den or cybercafe. That way, we won’t need to hear about anymore false alarms that not only interfere with game development processes, but also delay official government work.

(Source: Tribun Jogja)

This post was originally found on Games in Asia Indonesia.