TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has ordered the integrated task force chaired by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, to wipe out the online gambling ecosystem in the country.

During a limited meeting held to discuss online gambling eradication here on Wednesday, he also instructed the task force to pursue breakthroughs without delay to put an end to online gambling.

"We should handle all the ecosystems that enable online gambling," Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi, who is serving as the head of prevention in the task force, told the press after the meeting.

According to him, the goal behind the formation of the integrated task force is completely eradicating online gambling, from upstream to downstream.

He informed that the President has also asked the task force to make a significant impact on the handling of online gambling.

The minister, however, did not provide further details about whether there is a target that needs to be achieved in eradicating online gambling in Indonesia.

"Later, the benchmark will be that online gambling transactions according to the report of the PPATK (Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center) must decrease," he said.

Based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, as many as 1,904,246 items of online gambling content were taken down in the period from July 17, 2023, to May 21, 2024.

Furthermore, 5,364 bank accounts and 555 e-wallet accounts affiliated with online gambling were referred to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia (BI) for removal.

The ministry is also continuing to coordinate with digital platforms such as Google and Meta after recording 20,241 keyword changes on Google and 2,637 new keywords on Meta.

The ministry also recorded 14,823 items of embedded content suspected to be promoting online gambling on the websites of educational institutions and 17,001 items of similar embedded content on government websites.

"This is a concern for us. Indeed, it is very challenging, it is hard. Nevertheless, wait for one to two weeks, there will be significant breakthroughs," the minister assured.

ANTARA

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