Gov’t Aims to Root Out Online Gambling

Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi delivers press statement at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday (05/22). (Photo by: PR/Rahmat)

The Government has announced it is committed to eradicating online gambling in the country.

“We have taken down 1,904,246 online gambling contents from July 17, 2023 to May 21, 2024. In addition, we have also blocked 5,364 accounts and 555 e-wallets affiliated with online gambling,” Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday (05/22).

The Ministry, he continued, will continue to collaborate with search engines and online platforms on the keyword changes of online gambling sites.

“There are 20,251 keywords in Google and 2,637 new keywords in Meta, which we continue to investigate so we can eradicate online gambling completely at the upstream level,” Budi Arie said, adding that the Ministry has also issued a warning to social media platforms such as TikTok, Google, and Meta regarding the massive online gambling content on the platforms.

The Government has also taken firm steps by closing access to online gambling sites.

“In almost a month since the last limited cabinet meeting on online gambling on April 19, we have taken down 290,850 online gambling contents, meaning that we removed almost 300,000 contents a month, or 10,000 per day. As for e-wallet accounts, we have blocked 300 accounts in the last month,” Budi Arie said.

The Minister further said that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had ordered the formation of the Task Force for Online Gambling Eradication.

“The Task Force will be chaired by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs. Minister of Communication and Informatics will act as Head of Prevention, and the Indonesian National Police Chief will be the Head of Enforcement,” Budi Arie remarked. (TGH/DNS) (GWH/RAS/EP)