Hopes are high that Indonesian task force will eradicate online gambling

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Jakarta(ANTARA) –
As the number of victims of online gambling continues to increase, the Indonesian government has officially declared war on the practice.

Considering the adverse effects of online gambling on society, the government has prepared special weapons to eradicate it, namely Presidential Decree No. 21 of 2024 signed by President Joko Widodo on June 14, on the establishment of an online gambling eradication task force.

According to the decree, a cyber gambling eradication task force has been established. The task force aims to take the lead in eliminating cyber gambling from upstream to downstream.

The task force is led by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto and includes members from the Ministry of Communications and Information, the National Police, the National Defense Forces (TNI), the Attorney General’s Office, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) and other agencies.

After the decree was signed, Tjahjanto and the task force held their first meeting on June 19 to discuss specific steps to eliminate online gambling.

The establishment of the task force is necessary because online gambling has become a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately. From the unemployed to civil servants, many people are drawn to online gambling because of the lure of making quick money.

According to the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of Ukraine, even children as young as 10 are addicted to online gambling.

It was recorded that 2% of online gambling players, or 80,000 people, were under the age of 10. In addition, players between the ages of 10 and 20 accounted for 11% of the total, or about 440,000 people.

Among them, the number of people aged between 21 and 30 reached 520,000, accounting for 13%; the number of people aged between 30 and 50 reached 1.64 million, accounting for 40%.

Among them, the number of people over 50 years old has reached 1.35 million, accounting for 34% of the total population.

The ministry records show that among the upper middle class, the average value of online gambling transactions ranges from 100,000 rupiah (about 60.7 U.S. dollars) to 40 billion rupiah (about 2.42 million U.S. dollars), while among the lower middle class, the average value of online gambling transactions ranges from 10,000 rupiah to 100,000 rupiah.

Therefore, the task force is currently working hard to save those who are addicted to gambling. In addition, many online gamblers have also fallen into the trap of online loans.

Online gambling is prohibited in Indonesia under Article 27, Paragraph (2) of Law No. 1 of 2024 on the Second Amendment to the Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law.

Under Section 27(2), it will be considered an offence for “any person who intentionally distributes, transmits and/or makes available without authorisation electronic information and/or electronic documents containing gambling content”.

“Distribution” as used herein means sending or distributing information or electronic documents to a number of persons through an electronic system.

Meanwhile, “transmission” means sending electronic information and/or documents to another party through an electronic system.

Furthermore, “making accessible” means all efforts other than distribution and transmission that enable others to access such information.

In other words, public figures or other persons who deliberately promote online gambling on social media may also be subject to legal prosecution.

According to Article 45 (3) of Law No. 1 of 2024, violators will be subject to up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to IDR 10 billion (approximately USD 607,288).

Responsibilities of the Working Group

At the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs office in Jakarta on June 19, Tjahjanto and members of the gambling task force outlined a number of major tasks that must be completed within one to two weeks.

One of the tasks is to shut down online game credit recharge services in small markets to eradicate online gambling.

This has been a concern for the task force as several online games have been linked to online gambling behaviour. As a result, online game recharge services are seen as one of the factors driving the rise of social network gambling.

To implement this measure, Indonesian Army village non-commissioned officers (Babinsa) and police security and public order officers (Bhabinkamtibnas) will be the main promoters on the scene. They will inspect mini-markets and ask them to close such services.

At the same time, the working group will also coordinate with small supermarket companies and work hard to shut down related services.

So far, the task force has data on approximately 4,000 to 5,000 bank accounts that were actively involved in online gambling transactions.

The data will be handed over to the criminal investigation agency of the Polri in order to investigate the transactions carried out through these accounts. The agency will then freeze the accounts and publish the results.

If no one acknowledges ownership of the account within 30 days, the agency will transfer the funds in the account to the state.

The agency will then investigate the account owners to identify the main operators of the online gambling sites.

Currently, the task force has discovered a new model of gambling transactions being used in the community, namely bank account transactions.

This practice is closely associated with online gambling, as the exchange’s accounts are used to hold gambling winnings.

In this model, criminals approach people and ask them to open a bank account online, promising rewards, and for this they need to submit personal documents such as ID cards and family cards.

The criminals then hand over these bank accounts to the parties that trade them so they can be used for online gambling transactions.

The task force has deployed Babinsa and Bhabinkamtibnas to detect bank account transaction activities and disseminate information about the risks of online gambling.

block

There is also widespread public discussion about the possibility of blocking several social media platforms, which will be implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information, as several social media sites are suspected of facilitating the spread of online gambling and pornography.

One of the platforms warned by the ministry is Telegram.

Communications and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said the ministry had sent the first and second warning letters to Telegram.

But since no response has been made, the ministry will send a third warning letter as a final warning. If Telegram still does not respond, the ministry will block the platform.

According to data released by the Ministry of Communications and Information as of January 2024, there are approximately 800,000 online gambling websites blocked by the government.

Meanwhile, between July 17, 2023 and June 13, 2024, the Ministry of Communications and Information removed 2,945,150 items related to online gambling.

Indeed, eradicating online gambling in the digital age requires determination and effort. However, the Ministry of Communications and Information is optimistic that the online gambling task force will be able to eradicate online gambling, which has claimed many victims in the country.

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