The rise of online gambling players in Indonesia has a huge impact on life. Online gambling players do not look at their age, from those who are still in school to those who are old (workers). Indirectly, this has an impact on the quality of their social life, especially in educational and work environments.
One of the reasons for the rapid increase in online gambling players in Indonesia is providing information (invitations – deceptions) to get money quickly, easily and cheaply. So many Indonesians are tempted to the point of becoming addicted.
To date, statistical data shows that online gambling sites in Indonesia have reached 4 million. However, this is in contrast to the government’s firm steps in blocking online gambling sites, which only reached 800 thousand (2018 data). Of course, this figure is not progressive if the blocking is compared with the increase in online gambling sites in Indonesia, it does not even reach 25%.
The rapid increase in online gambling sites can be seen in several ways, such as:
1. Backlinks and Backdoors (Cybersecurity)
Online gambling sites are not only limited to the official pages they create. However, they also use sites that are usually not maintained and rarely used so that they become easy targets for their security to be penetrated (hacked) and the system accessed without authentication (with a backdoor).
Such behavior has the potential for sites that have security gaps to be vulnerable to being infiltrated and taken over by irresponsible parties and being contaminated with online gambling content both on page and off page. For example, on a site content or domains will be provided that direct to other pages of the site (online gambling).
What is even more unfortunate is that online gambling sites have also hacked the official sites of institutions, from educational or academic (ac.id) to government (go.id). Therefore, improving and maintaining the security of a website is very necessary to prevent this behavior.
2. Promotion
Almost everyone must have encountered promotions or content containing online gambling. Whether it’s in the form of video, text, links, or even direct invitations to join (either from friends or via chat).
This shows that many people, even though they do not play online gambling, participate in promoting online gambling sites indirectly. Because of the tempting offer, they are willing even though the risk is punishment. The promotional events that are being promoted are not limited to just one media. The easiest way is to endorse a famous person.
Another example, many TikTok, reels and YouTube videos provide watermarks on online gambling sites. It is also often found in text form, especially on online news portals and comments on social media.
It doesn’t stop there, online gambling sites also promote their sites through donations to YouTubers, TikTok live streaming, etc. Most often found on YouTubers who are doing live streaming and opening donations (saweria, sociabuzz, et al.).
They are even willing to spend tens of millions of rupiah to promote it through these donations. Instead, text will appear containing the name, donation amount, and message/writing on the live streaming video screen which can be seen by all viewers who are watching the live streaming. This is despite the fall of the owner of the online gambling site “laundering money”, and the response of several live streamers (youtubers) was that they were happy, and even regretted this action for several reasons.
Conclusion
From 2018 data, it can be seen that until 2023, online gambling has not received significant follow-up. So, by writing this article, we also express our attitude that the government prioritizes legal follow-up on online gambling sites, both perpetrators, promoters, managers and players in Indonesia, in order to create a life for Indonesian people that is free from gambling and the negative impacts that accompany it.
