Budi Gunawan Reveals Turnover Of Online Gambling Money Reaches IDR 900 Trillion In 2024

Rupiah (Photo: Antara)

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) Budi Gunawan said the circulation of money from online gambling activities in Indonesia reached IDR 900 trillion throughout 2024.

"That online gambling turnover in Indonesia has reached approximately Rp900 trillion in 2024," he said at a press conference on the achievement of the online gambling eradication desk and cybersecurity desk and data protection, Thursday, November 21.

Budi Gunawan explained that the estimated number of online gambling players in Indonesia reached 8.8 million, the majority of which came from the lower middle class. Then 97 thousand members of the TNI-Polri and 1.9 million private employees who play online gambling. As well as 80 thousand online gambling players who are under 10 years old.

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

Budi said that the massive amount of online gambling was due to information from cyber security, online gambling could trigger endorphins which made players feel happy and happy when they managed to win one of the online gambling.

According to Budi Gunawan, the victory has been regulated by online gambling operators so that the deposit of funds will get bigger and when the deposit is large, players will certainly lose and lose money.

Therefore, Budi Gunawan said that there were quite difficulties in eradicating online gambling (judol) so that the government would be more aggressive in eradicating it.

According to Budi Gunawan, from a technical point of view, the eradication of online gambling does seem easy to identify and block online gambling sites. However, in practice many of the operators managing online gambling websites carry out domain switching (breaking domains).

"As a result of our evaluation, many operators have switched or changed the name of the domain that has been blocked so that we will carry out the blocking steps more aggressively," he said.

According to Budi Gunawan, the current condition of online gambling is very disturbing, worrying and emergency. Where it is like an epidemic, such as infectious diseases that infect various groups, from parents to children.

"That online gambling is currently in trouble, worrying and emergency," he said.

Therefore, Budi Gunawan said that all relevant ministries/agencies will continue to take action and law enforcement efforts.

Budi Gunawan conveyed that one of them was by cutting and blocking online gambling sites, such as tracing and blocking the flow of funds and conducting public campaigns and education to prevent online gambling.