Based on a survey from DroneEmprit, Indonesia has the highest number of online gambling users, with 201,122 users. Not only that, the turnover of money in online gambling activities is also very worrying. Based on data from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), there were 168 million online gambling transactions with a turnover of 327 Trillion throughout 2023.

In the first quarter of 2024 alone, the turnover of money in online gambling applications has reached 110 Trillion. The head of the online gambling eradication task force and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto said that 2.37 million Indonesians have fallen into online gambling and 80% of online gambling users are from the lower middle class economy.

This is very worrying because the money turnover of 327 T flows abroad, not stopping in Indonesia. The implication is that people's purchasing power decreases, sellers and traders will experience a decrease in selling power which will result in a decrease in income, which will ultimately fall into poverty.

For example, Budi, who initially bought lontong and a glass of tea every morning, bought rice and snacks during the day, and bought martabak and coffee at night, suddenly changed when he got to know online gambling. Budi no longer buys the various foods above, but uses his money to deposit online gambling, and the same story with millions of other users. As a result, the economy does not spin, the economy is sluggish, which has fatal consequences for the social order.

If we talk about eradication efforts, the State must already have instruments to eradicate online gambling, namely using legal instruments. For example, there are article 27 paragraph 2 and article 45 paragraph 2 of the ITE Law, and various other legal regulations. However, in reality, online gambling practices still exist and even tend to increase.

Here are some mainstream efforts to eradicate online gambling that can be done:

  1. Strict Law Enforcement, can be done with severe sanctions, such as imprisonment and fines. It can also be done with international cooperation to arrest online gambling operators who are hiding abroad.
  2. Strengthening Regulations, can be done by implementing blocking of online gambling sites and implementing layered blocking technology to make it difficult to access online gambling sites.
  3. Education and Socialization, can be done with public campaigns to raise awareness of the risks of online gambling, as well as socialization of financial literacy.
  4. Utilization of Technology, similar to the method already mentioned, namely by blocking access to gambling sites based on DNS and IP. Also, AI can be used to detect suspicious activity on the internet that smells of promotion or use of online gambling.
  5. Multi-sector Collaboration, by encouraging the public to report online gambling activities to the authorities, and collaborating with influencers to carry out digital literacy socialization regarding the dangers of online gambling.
  6. Prevention and Rehabilitation, providing programs to provide support to online gambling perpetrators to help them recover from addiction.