Jakarta, INTI - Three Indonesian engineers made an achievement at the OpenAI Codex Hackathon event in Singapore in late February 2026. The trio developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system, designed to track and identify networks of online gambling.
The system, named GambitHunter, can automatically go to online gambling websites and collect evidence, such as bank accounts and phone numbers that are used to receive deposits.
The innovation not only attracted the judges for its technicality, but also the targeted social problem that has been going on in Indonesia, which is online gambling, also known as “judol” in Indonesia, that damages the Indonesian public economy to trillions of rupiahs per year.
The GambitHunter developers were Steven Sukma Limanus, Ilham Firdausi Putra, and Reynaldo Wijaya Hendry, three Indonesian engineers currently working at various technology companies in Singapore.
"We were very surprised when we were announced as the runner-up. Initially, we felt our idea might not be technically complex enough to win the competition," said Ilham, contacted by detikINET.
The Idea Behind GambitHunter
The idea for GambitHunter came from the three engineers' concern about the increasingly negative impacts of online gambling in Indonesia. Steven said this concern came after reading various reports about the economic losses caused by online gambling.
"We began to realize that online gambling is a very big problem when we saw news reports that its impact on the Indonesian economy is quite significant," said Steven.
Reynaldo also said that he often heard stories directly from people around him about the negative impacts of online gambling.
"I often hear from friends about online gambling problems. Some even tell stories of their families who ask for loans because they are in debt due to their online gambling addiction," he said.
For them, GambitHunter is not just a technology project, but an effort to utilize AI to help solve real-life social problems.
"We see an opportunity to help reduce the problem of online gambling using AI technology, which has developed very rapidly recently," said Ilham.
He added that technological advances such as AI coding agents and OpenAI Codex have made the software development process much faster. With AI agents capable of crawling websites and gathering evidence automatically, systems like GambitHunter have the potential to aid large-scale investigations, including detecting various illegal activities on the internet.
The name GambitHunter reflects a strategic and risky effort to combat online gambling. “Gambit” refers to a risky strategic move in chess, symbolizing the challenges in eradicating online gambling. “Hunter” represents the system’s function in tracking the digital footprints of gambling operators.
The Indonesian engineers developed this automated system during a hackathon using several OpenAI AI models, including GPT-5.2 and Codex. Steven added that AI technology can help accelerate the process of identifying online gambling networks, which have previously been difficult to track.
GambitHunter Was Developed in 7 Hours
The GAmbitHunter system was developed in seven hours. In the limited duration, the team had to make a concept, write the code, do trials, and prepare a presentation demonstration for the judges. A tense moment occurred just before the competition's closing.
"About 20 minutes before the deadline, we didn't have a demo video yet. I immediately ran to find a quiet room to record the demonstration video," said Ilham.
Then, the video was successfully recorded and submitted three minutes before the deadline. The demo showed that the GambitHunter system could extract data from real online gambling websites, not just simulations.
The three engineers believe GambitHunter has the potential to assist government agencies or law enforcement in combating online gambling. However, they emphasized that such a system should be operated by institutions with legal authority.
"This technology can speed up the investigation process, but its best implementation lies in the hands of official agencies," said Steven.
The team also expressed that they are open to sharing knowledge or demonstrating the system with parties interested in developing similar solutions.
Conclusion
GambitHunter was developed by three Indonesian engineers at the OpenAI Codex Hackathon event in Singapore. GambitHunter is an AI-based system that can automatically track and expose online gambling networks. By utilizing AI models such as GPT-5.2 and Codex, the system demonstrates how technology can be used to support efforts to address and solve social issues, particularly in this case, eradicating online gambling.
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