Damaging People’s Mentality and Threatening Indonesia’s Gold, the Government Wages War Against Online Gambling
Jakarta – The Indonesian government has officially formed a Task Force for the Eradication of Online Gambling (Online Gambling). The existence of this task force is proof of the state’s strong commitment to taking firm action against this illegal practice.
The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs as Chair of the Task Force revealed that his party had moved to immediately eradicate online gambling, including through law enforcement operations.
“We will carry out three operations. “Firstly, freezing accounts, secondly, taking action against buying and selling accounts and thirdly taking action against online game transactions through top ups at minimarkets,” said the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.
The head of the Online Gambling Task Force explained that victims of online gambling are not only parents, but also children or as many as 2% of the players.
The distribution of players generally comes from all socio-economic levels of society.
“On average, this is from the lower middle class, which is 80% of the 2.37 million players. And the nominal transaction cluster for the lower middle class is between IDR 10,000.oo to IDR 100,000.oo. “According to data for the upper middle class cluster, nominal transactions are between IDR 100,000 to IDR 40 billion,” he said.
In a separate place, Chairman of PP Muhammadiyah Anwar Abbas explained the dangers of online gambling practices which he considered to have caused many negative impacts.
“(The bad impacts that arise as a result of being caught in online gambling) include murder, theft, robbery, divorce, domestic violence, poverty and so on,” said Chairman of PP Muhammadiyah Anwar Abbas
Recently, online gambling cases have triggered a number of crimes, including cases of Domestic Violence (KDRT) involving police officers in East Java.
Meanwhile, in May 2024, a TNI officer in Papua was determined to end his life because he was in debt of up to Rp. 819.3 million due to online gambling.
The chairman of PP Muhammadiyah also praised President Joko Widodo’s steps in forming the Online Gambling Task Force
He also hopes that the eradication of online gambling can run optimally.
“So that no one in this nation becomes addicted to gambling. “Because healing will clearly be very difficult,” concluded Anwar Abbas.
The practice of online gambling in Indonesia has become a common problem which not only damages people’s mentality, but also disrupts the nation’s economic targets and the upcoming Golden Indonesia 2045.
The Online Gambling Task Force involves many institutions ranging from the Police, TNI, to the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).
