Online Gambling Supervision Has Been Tightened, Don't Forget About Illegal Loans

Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Commission XI of the House of Representatives encourages the Financial Services Authority (OJK) not only to block accounts affiliated with online gambling. OJK is also expected to supervise and block illegal online loan activities (Pinjol) that are still troubling the public.

"OJK is expected to be more proactive in cracking down on illegal and disturbing financial services. This illegal online and Pinjol gambling has been very disturbing. Don't just focus on law enforcement, but on supervision and blocking accounts from the start," said Member of Commission XI DPR, Willy Aditya, Monday, October 16.

Willy paid attention to a number of cases of crime and humanity due to online lending and gambling. As recently, it has gone viral on social media for a resident to commit suicide because he is suspected of being in debt.

In the narration in the video, it is said that the victim initially borrowed Rp9 million. However, he was obliged to return Rp19 million in a short period of time.

Seeing the increasing social problems due to online loans and gambling, Willy assessed that the Government does not need to increase the enforcement of the law on Pinjol organizers because many of them really charge borrowers.

"Not to mention the disturbing billing method. Then the additional costs are beyond reasonable by the rules. This is what must be monitored, if necessary, revoke the arbitrary Pinjol permit, and block its spread in Indonesia's digital media," he said.

Willy encouraged the digital revolution of banking to overcome this phenomenon. Security, privacy, and trust must be the key to the policy of digitalizing finance and banking. In addition, the rule of law that protects customers also needs to be strengthened along with strengthening digital financial businesses.

"With the digital revolution, inevitably there must be a firm blue print and white print on the guarantee of protecting customers that must be considered by the Government," said Willy.

In addition to urgent needs factors, another factor for the large number of people to switch to Pinjol is considered to be due to the problem of half-hearted financial inclusion. Willy detailed, such as the difficulty of ordinary people accessing finances from formal institutions, such as banks, and others.

"So that illegal Pinjol appears that offers easy, fast, and large processes that lead to social problems. So that now there are more and more illegal Pinjol and more unsupervised," said the Deputy Chairman of the Legislation Body (Baleg) of the DPR RI.

Therefore, Willy reminded the Government to promote financial inclusion and literacy to the public. He assessed that the low level of financial literacy and inclusion caused individuals and households to borrow excessively from Pinjol who had higher credit costs.

"As a result, Pinjol is one of the contributors to the growth of household debt in Indonesia. This is really beyond our expectations," said Willy.

On the other hand, the legislator from the East Java XI electoral district encourages the formation of a special team from the Government, OJK and law enforcement officials to tighten regulations. According to Willy, this special team can overcome matters related to online Pinjol and gambling issues.

"Whether it's illegal lending and online gambling is a disturbing social phenomenon, for that it needs synergy across ministries and institutions that are united in one legal umbrella to eradicate it all," he said.

Willy also appreciated the performance of the OJK which has blocked 1,700 bank accounts that are related to online gambling cases. He hopes that this step can continue to online gambling accounts, because the impact of online Pinjol and gambling is very real in the community.

"The success of blocking bank accounts by OJK is the result of effective cooperation. This needs to be done materials from the start. A company or legal entity has been indicated to carry out online gambling operations or online loans," said Willy.

Another thing that Willy highlighted was the development of the media for the spread of information and promotion of online gambling and Pinjol. According to him, all media used to spread information and promote social problems need to be suppressed and prohibited from airing at all.

"In addition to law enforcement, preventing further spread is the key in fighting illegal online gambling. Strict supervision of content dissemination and online gambling promotion activities needs to be implemented," he appealed.

Willy encouraged the Government to take firm action against the promotion of illegal gambling in cyberspace. This effort must also be accompanied by public education about risks related to online gambling.

"This rapid development of digital media needs to be anticipated. All parties involved in promoting and disseminating online gambling information and Pinjol must be dealt with firmly. Whether he is an influencer, a public figure, or anyone who gets paid for disseminating information and promoting online gambling and borrowing must be dealt with," concluded Willy.