Addiction To Online Gambling, ELSAM Gives Advice To The Government On Rehabilitation

Illustration of online gambling sites (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Executive Director of the Institute for Community Studies and Advocacy (ELSAM) Wahyudi Djafar suggested that the Government rehabilitate residents who are addicted to online gambling (online) so that there is no repetition.

"In the context of narcotics, there is rehabilitation. So, it is not punishing users, but how gamblers who experience addiction are involved in rehabilitation," Wahyudi said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 27.

This rehabilitation can involve various parties, including psychologists or ministries from other sectors such as the Ministry of Culture if they want to provide rehabilitation with a cultural approach, then the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection as well as the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi).

"This includes sectoral institutions. From the information identified by the police and PPATK, many of the staff are involved in online gambling," he said.

According to Wahyudi, rehabilitation is one of the further steps that the Government can take in addition to blocking various online gambling sites.

Further steps after the Government blocks online gambling sites are still needed because blocking online gambling sites is just an administrative action that cannot solve the complexity of online gambling problems.

"It will be very easy when gambling sites are blocked, then they (managers) create new sites," he said.

In addition to rehabilitation measures, he also highlighted the importance of digital literacy related to the dangers of online gambling.

Digital literacy, according to him, is not only needed by people who come from the lower middle class of the economy, but online gambling addicts also come from the upper middle class of the economy.

Therefore, Wahyudi emphasized that collaboration between ministries, institutions, and the community is very important to overcome the complexity of online gambling problems in Indonesia.

"So, it can't be left only to Komdigi," said Wahyudi.