"We will apply three steps to eradicate online gambling, namely comprehensive, integral, and holistic," the minister remarked when met at his office here Friday.
According to Setiadi, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had entrusted the Coordinating Minister for Political, Defense, and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto with leading the integrated task force.
Meanwhile, the Communication and Informatics Ministry will be represented by its Control Directorate at the Directorate General of Information Applications (Aptika) at the task force.
Before the online gambling eradication task force from the central government, the ministry had routinely eradicated online gambling practices by cutting off access to content containing online gambling in the digital space, the minister remarked.
During his eight months of work as communication and informatics minister, Setiadi stated that his side had removed 1.6 million pieces of online gambling content from the Indonesian digital space.
"We want to go all out to eradicate online gambling. Anyone can report the practice to us, and we will take it down immediately," he stated.
On Thursday (April 18), the central government planned to form an integrated task force in the next week to eradicate online gambling.
The formation of the task force aims to solve the problem of online gambling more comprehensively by intensifying coordination between the ministries and institutions involved, Setiadi remarked.
"This gambling is illegal by law. Therefore, the strengthening measures (to eradicate it) need to be carried out effectively," he emphasized after attending an internal meeting chaired by President Jokowi regarding Indonesia's online gambling emergency at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday.
Based on data from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the total turnover of money generated from online gambling in 2023 amounted to Rp327 trillion (US$20 billion).
Setiadi found this to be highly disturbing, especially since several reports stated that online gambling players came from the low-income community.
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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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