Task Force Cuts Down Access to Online Gambling by 50 Percent
Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi delivers remarks during a dissemination of information on gambling prevention within the Ministry of Communication and Informatics at Aryaduta Hotel, Central Jakarta, Thursday (07/25). (Photo by: PR of Ministry of Communication and Informatics)
Following the Government’s continuous efforts to root out online gambling, the Online Gambling Eradication Task Force has so far successfully curtailed access to online gambling by 50 percent.
Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said that the data from Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) shows that the amount of money deposited in online gambling sites also declined to Rp34.49 trillion. It indicates that the Government’s efforts to eradicate online gambling have started to show a significant result, he added.
“It is such a remarkable result; we must applaud everyone who involved in this measure,” he said during a dissemination of information on gambling prevention within the Ministry of Communication and Informatics at Aryaduta Hotel, Central Jakarta, Thursday (07/25).
He went on say that the Task Force has set a target to curtail people’s access to online gambling by 80 percent so that the amount of money deposited in online gambling sites could decline to Rp45.79 trillion.
For the reason, the Minister said that dissemination of information on gambling prevention particularly to the general public must be continued. He added that the dissemination can be conducted by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.
“I also call on Directorate General of IKP (Public Information and Communication), BPSDM (Human Resources Development Agency), and Directorate of Informatics Empowerment to strengthen concrete and strategic result-oriented measures to promote anti-online gambling dissemination,” he said.
For the record, from 17 July 2023 to 23 July 2024 the Ministry’s Directorate of Informatics Application Control of the Directorate General of Informatics Applications has cut off access to 2,645,081 online gambling contents.
The Ministry also proposed blocking 573 e-wallet accounts affiliated with online gambling to central Bank Indonesia and blocking 6,199 bank accounts related to online gambling to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in a period from September 2023 to July 23, 2024.
“Regarding online gambling contents that were infiltrated the Government and education pages, the Ministry has so far found 23,616 items of gambling-related contents on the Government agencies pages and 22,205 items on education pages,” he explained adding that the Ministry also reported 20,595 online gambling-related keywords to Google and 3,961 keywords to Meta. (Ministry of Communication and Informatics PR/DNS) (RAS/LW)
