ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian government has openly declared war on online gambling. Apart from causing casualties, the rise of online gambling in the country has given rise to criminal acts.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has officially issued Presidential Decree No.21/2024 concerning the Online Gambling Eradication Task Force. The regulation stipulated in Jakarta, Friday, June 14 2024 contains the composition of the Online Gambling task force team including its duties and functions. Article 2 of the presidential decree stipulates that the task force is responsible to the President.
Meanwhile, article 3 states that the task force aims to accelerate the eradication of online gambling activities in a firm and integrated manner.
Furthermore, in article 4, Jokowi gave the task force the task of optimizing the prevention and enforcement of online gambling laws effectively and efficiently as well as increasing coordination between ministries/institutions and foreign cooperation in efforts to prevent and enforce online gambling laws.
“Align and determine the implementation of strategic policies and formulate recommendations to optimize the prevention and enforcement of online gambling laws,” reads the presidential decree, quoted on Sunday, June 16 2024.
The membership composition of the online gambling task force includes: Chair: Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security, Deputy Chair: Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Daily Chair for Prevention: Minister of Communication and Information, Daily Chair for Law Enforcement: Chief of Police of the Republic of Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) noted that as many as 3.2 million Indonesians were identified as playing online gambling, consisting of students, students and housewives.
PPATK Public Relations Coordinator Natsir Kongah explained that the identification was obtained from as many as 5,000 accounts that were successfully blocked. On average, the identified online gambling players play more than IDR 100,000 or almost 80% of the 3.2 million identified players.
“Some of the players identified as playing online gambling are housewives,” he said in the online discussion “Dying Destitute Because of Gambling”, Saturday, June 15 2024.
According to him, this is very worrying because housewives have also been identified as playing online gambling. This is because money that should meet household needs is actually used to play online gambling, which will reduce nutritional intake for children.
Furthermore, Natsir revealed how PPATK found out that suspicious financial transactions from blocked accounts were related to online gambling. The mechanism starts from the perpetrator, then the perpetrator is sent to the small dealer, then the small dealer is sent to the big dealer. As a result, most of the money went abroad, with a value of more than IDR 5 trillion. Online gambling transactions utilize bank services to e-wallets.
“E-wallets are also widely used. We always coordinate with reporting parties to submit reports of suspicious financial transactions, related to gambling or other criminal acts, as is their obligation,” said Natsir.
On the other hand, online gambling games have triggered crazy actions among players ranging from murder, breaking into banks, committing suicide to embezzling company money. (ATN)
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