Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) has declared that Indonesia is in an emergency situation for online gambling, because it has spread very rapidly among society. They also asked the public to immediately report if they encounter online gambling on their gadgets.
“Because now Indonesia has entered an online gambling emergency, there have been quite a lot of complaints, and we can’t leave it any longer,” said Deputy Minister of Communication and Information Nezar Patria when met in the Senayan area, Jakarta, Tuesday (17/10/2023).
He also revealed that in order to eradicate online gambling sites, the Directorate General of Informatics Applications (Ditjen Aptika) Kominfo has created a special task force that works 24 hours with three shifts to eradicate online gambling sites. He said this task force had collaborated with the police.
However, Nezar admitted that eradicating the existence of online gambling sites cannot only be done by the government and related agencies themselves. Because, every time there is action, such as blocking, a new website or site will appear as a replacement.
“So this is really a huge amount of work and as we know, one more takedown appears, but we never stop monitoring and taking firm action for online gambling,” said Nezar.
Therefore, he also asked the public to be actively involved in reporting the existence of online gambling sites, as well as parties who openly promote them. This includes cases of online gambling sites sponsoring community activities.
“Let’s just report it, we also ask for help from the media community and all communities that are concerned about this online gambling issue, please report it to Kominfo, because the cyber patrol created by Kominfo, however, has limitations, there are only those who get through, one or two ,” said Nezar.
“So, if the public knows about the existence of online gambling sites, please report them to the Ministry of Communication and Information and directly to the Directorate General of Agriculture so that immediate action can be taken. So please participate to save our nation from this online gambling,” he stressed.
Previously, the Minister of Communication and Information, Budi Arie Setiadi, had estimated that public losses due to online gambling reached IDR 2.2 trillion for one site alone. That way, annually it could reach IDR 27 trillion.
“So according to the reports and data we got, one site called Higgs Domino Island even has a turnover of IDR 2.2 trillion per month. This means that in a year it can reach around IDR 27 trillion, that’s for one site alone,” he said at the conference. Press Update regarding the Eradication of Online Gambling, Tuesday (8/8/2023).
On that occasion, Budi revealed that 886,719 online gambling content had been blocked from July 2018 to August 7 2023. Meanwhile, in less than a month since July 17, there was more than 40 thousand content that was also caught by Kominfo.
“More specifically, since I was appointed on July 17 2023 to August 7 2023, Kominfo has cut off access and taken down 42,622 online gambling content,” he said.
He also confirmed that his party would take concrete steps to stop online gambling. For example, by coordinating with the police in the context of legal action.
Action will be taken across the entire online gambling ecosystem. Including developers, bookies, sponsors, parties promoting, and those behind the activity.
“This is the task of arresting the task of taking action against law enforcement officers. That’s why we will immediately coordinate with the legal authorities, especially the police of the Republic of Indonesia, regarding the steps,” explained Budi.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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