With only a smartphone and tens of thousands of rupiah, they tried their luck. But in the long term, they become addicted and have the potential to commit criminal acts, social observers say.
The Ministry of Communication and Information said that from 2018 to 10 May 2022 it had cut off access to 499,645 gambling content on various digital platforms.
But the eradication of online gambling in Indonesia is difficult because online gambling sites or applications continue to appear under different names, even though access has been cut off.
“Savings run out, car runs out”
Dion, not his real name, said he had no money left in his savings after almost a year of playing online gambling.
“Winning doesn’t feel like it, but losing does. It’s the opposite, right?”
This 25 year old man has known about online gambling since 2018 from a friend. But at that time, he admitted that he was not too ‘crazy’ about gambling.
one of my friends was able to buy a motorbike. I was tempted. I then asked, what to play? I was told the site, I registered.
“At that time I didn’t play much, I was still relaxing.”
When the pandemic hit, online slot gambling suddenly became popular. Dion was interested in trying it because it was easy to understand.
The money from winning online lottery gambling, amounting to IDR 700,000, was immediately bet on slot gambling.
All night playing, he earned IDR 11 million.
“It feels good, I’ve never won that big before,” he explained, laughing at the memory of his luck.
“Wins are rare and never as big as that first win. At most I got IDR 500,000, IDR 400,000, sometimes IDR 1 million. But never more than IDR 5 million.”
“If the percentage is 80% you lose, 20% you win.”
However, even though he had lost many times, Dion did not stop.
The savings and severance pay he received as a result of being laid off due to the pandemic were used up for gambling.
“It’s like if you’ve spent Rp. 4 million, you definitely won’t receive it and have to return the money by… gambling again, gambling again.”
In order to avenge his loss, this single man pawned his car’s BPKP certificate to get a loan.
As much as 40% of the mortgage money was used for stock trading, the rest was for slot gambling.
As many times as he bets, he still loses.
“The due date for paying the debt from the BPKP pawn is no longer there, so you are forced to sell the car to pay off the loan”
Since then, he has stopped playing online gambling. Apart from not having any money anymore, he realized that gambling was a waste of his hard work over the years.
Dion admitted that he was a little lucky because he didn’t get caught in an online loan or do something else reckless just to play online gambling.
Because I have a principle that if I gamble, I don’t want to bother other people. Maybe because this principle saved me from being addicted to online gambling.
Why do you get addicted to gambling?
Social observer from the University of Indonesia, Devie Rahmawati, said the Covid-19 pandemic which destroyed many families’ economies was the main factor why many people were trapped in online gambling.
Online gambling, said Devie, seems to provide an ‘alternative way’ for people who want to earn additional income.
“In principle, humans are game players. What’s interesting about online gambling is that it’s attracted by games. This is what then drives people without realizing it to get caught up in online gambling. In the end, they are addicted.”
Therefore, according to Devie, no one is immune from the potential pitfalls of online gambling. Whether they come from lower or higher economic or educational groups.
What is the government doing?
In Indonesia, gambling activities are prohibited by the government because they are considered detrimental to society and violate religious norms.
Specifically for online gambling, the Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law punishes perpetrators and people who distribute gambling content with the threat of a maximum prison sentence of six years IDR 1 billion.
That’s why he believes that closing sites or blocking online gambling applications will not work. If there are no individual and family roles.
“When the government seals gambling places, they will operate online. People will not hesitate to ‘invest’ there. So the choice of playing or not remains in the hands of the individual.”
Meanwhile, Kominfo urges the public to use digital platforms wisely, both for entertainment purposes, economic transactions and productive activities.
“We invite the public to report the discovery of gambling-related content in the digital space through the available complaint channels.”
