Kabareskrim: 85 Influencers Acted On Online Gambling

The Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police, Komjen Wahyu Widada, said that he would not be indiscriminate in eradicating online gambling. This is proven by taking action against 85 influencers who are involved in promoting gambling sites.

"For our special action regarding influencers, there are some that we have acted on, the suspects we acted on during the establishment of the decs, there were 85 people who carried out endorsements," Wahyu told reporters, Thursday, November 21.

It is undeniable that some time ago many artists or influencers promoted online gambling. However, when it was processed, it was revealed that the promotional action was carried out for a long time.

In fact, the online gambling sites that were promoted were no longer active. Thus, the criminal element is not fulfilled to continue processing it.

"Indeed, sometimes like this, there are those that appear now but actually old products. There were some time ago, there were several artists who he really talked about but that was the year when he was covid. Now when we check again, the site is no longer there," Wahyu said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam), Budi Gunawan stated that Indonesia was experiencing an online gambling emergency. Because, of the millions of players, 80 thousand of them are children under 10 years old.

"80 thousand (players) who are under 10 years old," said Budi.

Then, there were also 97 thousand members of the TNI-Polri who played. In fact, there are 1.9 million private employees who become online gambling players.

Overall, the people who become online gambling players reached 8.8 million. With a money circulation value of IDR 900 trillion in the 2024 period.

According to him, this number or amount is expected to continue to increase over time. Therefore, online gambling must be taken.

"This figure is predicted to continue to grow if we do not make massive efforts in eradicating online gambling," he said.