Indonesia’s Minister of Digital Communications, Meutya Hafid, has called for more action against illegal gambling in the country.
First speaking at the 2024 Komdigi Journalism Awards Summit (AJK) in Jakarta, Hafid – a former newscaster, took time to praise President Prabowo Subianto’s efforts to push gambling out of the country, and to invite journalists to a deepen discussions that increase public awareness around the issue.
“Journalists play an important role in guiding the public, increasing understanding, and assisting in the process of policy formation and law enforcement,” she said.
Under current legislation, all forms of gambling are strictly prohibited for both local residents and foreigners living in or visiting Indonesia. Subianto was handed out the task to prevent the public’s participation by his predecessor, former President Joko Widodo, whose leadership saw the launch of the Online Gambling Eradication Taskforce.
Led by the taskforce, the online gambling siege is currently also being supported by several other authority departments, in addition to the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) which monitors the transactions of individual bank accounts that are suspected of being used for gambling.
Journalists take stance against gambling
Back at the awards summit, Hafid extended a gratitude towards the large number of journalists in attendance that contributed to the seventh AJK – with this year’s theme being ‘The Impact and Challenge of Online Gambling in the Digital Era’.
“Thank you to the friends who have presented the campaign movement and provided education to the community regarding online gambling.”
She also emphasised that combatting online gambling cannot be done individually, and that it requires a coordinated group effort which the journalism cohort in Indonesia is more than capable of doing.
This was evidenced in the number of projects that Hafid awarded on stage, with a total of three distinctive projects recognised for their coverage of online gambling across each of the five categories – photo journalism, radio coverage, TV, online, and print media.
Mira Tayyiba, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, congratulated all of the 271 journalists whose work managed to reach the final rounds of the competition.
“Through the news delivered by fellow journalists, we can witness how this gambling activity not only destroys the lives of the individuals involved, but also gnaws at the family and the wider community.”
Anti-online gambling semantics in the political cycle
The complete eradication of online gambling has been a valued rhetoric in Indonesia’s political language.
To demonstrate care for the people, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People’s Empowerment, Muhaimin Iskandar, recently orchestrated a public stunt by visiting one of Jakarta’s national public hospitals – specifically a care unit for patients being treated for compulsive online gambling behaviours.
Speaking to CNN Indonesia, Iskandar said: “The emergency conditions caused by online gambling are widening. Not just economic problems, not just social problems, not just crime. It has also become a health problem – where damage [is being done] to the mind, to the psychological state…and to the physical health of our citizens.
“Today, the number of patients in hospitals has increased sharply…due to online gambling (treatment). Victims who need therapy, who relapse again and again.
“Of course this is a concern for all of us and everyone is aware of that, therefore the situation is a national and social disaster which we must quickly deal with.”
Shortly after his visit to the hospital, Iskandar urged the Ministry of Social Affairs to set up a national helpline that would open up another problem gambling support path for people across the country.
Government efforts intensify
In a recent statement, Hafid’s Ministry of Digital Communications reiterated that it continues to “intensify” its monitoring of online gambling content by increasing the number of its ‘cyber patrols’, which leverage modern technology like Artificial Intelligence to pinpoint and remove illegal online content.
“What we are also doing is a monitoring and blocking strategy that is carried out intensively in the form of special cyber patrols to detect sites and applications that contain gambling content,” Hafid explained.
“The Ministry has cut off access to 5.1 million (pieces of) gambling content since 2017, including 3.5 million that were blocked throughout 2024.”
Official statistics also show that just between 20 October and 18 November 2024, the Ministry had restricted the access to a total of 315,425 items of content – including close to 300k illegal IP addresses, 13k ads on Meta platforms, 2.7k of Google and YouTube ads, and 1.5k of Twitter items.
Hafid’s digital comms Ministry has also worked towards strengthening its collaboration with the above-mentioned AML taskforce PPATK to stop the flow of illicit money made from online gambling.
According to both government bodies, the total amount of wagered online gambling funds can reach Rp981trn ($61.6bn) by the end of this year if no further intervention is made.
“This is a staggering amount, nearly Rp 1,000trn, and it is believed that the funds are primarily flowing out of the country,” Hafid commented.
She concluded by inviting all financial services providers in Indonesia to take an active role in addressing the issue and supporting government efforts by reporting any transactions that could be linked to online gambling.
“For those still involved in financial transactions supporting online gambling, let’s work together to monitor and stop this.”
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