{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1695167,
        "msgid": "trapping-digital-giants-in-the-online-gambling-vicious-cycle-1776916406",
        "date": "2026-04-23 09:20:00",
        "title": "Trapping Digital Giants in the Online Gambling Vicious Cycle",
        "author": "Ferril Dennys",
        "source": "KOMPAS",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Regulation",
        "summary": "Online gambling has emerged as a national emergency in Indonesia, with transaction volumes reaching Rp 327 trillion in 2023, primarily ensnaring lower and middle-income groups including students, as reported by PPATK. The ease of access via smartphones and deceptive marketing as \"money-making games\" has led to severe consequences such as illegal loans, debt collection harassment, family breakdowns, theft, and suicides. Despite Kominfo blocking 2.6 million sites since 2018, international syndicates using AI to generate new domains highlight the limitations of downstream blocking efforts, underscoring the need for improved digital literacy and upstream interventions.",
        "content": "<p>Imagine a junior high school student in a remote area of Kalimantan.\nHis pocket money is only Rp 10,000 per day, but he already has a debt of\nRp 2 million from slot gambling. This is not a film scenario. It is\nreal. The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, or PPATK,\nrecorded online gambling money circulation in Indonesia reaching Rp 327\ntrillion throughout 2023. Alarmingly, 80 percent of the players are from\nlower to middle-income communities, including students and university\nstudents. Online gambling has become a national emergency that ensnares\nour young generation. In the past, gambling was synonymous with casinos\nor cockfighting arenas that required going to the location. Now, it only\ntakes a mobile phone and Rp 5,000 data quota. They use terms like\n\u201cmoney-making game\u201d or \u201cpassive income\u201d, complete with fake\ntestimonials. The victims are no longer just adults, but already\ntargeting minors. The impacts are chain reactions and deadly. Losing at\ngambling causes players to get trapped in illegal online loans. After\nthat, the term galbay emerges, meaning failure to pay. Victims are then\nterrorised by DC, short for Debt Collector or debt collector. That\npressure causes families to fall apart. At the end, many resort to\nstealing or even suicide. This is no longer just a moral issue, but\nalready a matter of lives. The Ministry of Communication and Informatics\nhas blocked 2.6 million gambling sites since 2018. In fact, when one is\nshut down, a thousand more grow. Why? Because these online gambling\nbookmakers are international syndicates. Their servers are abroad. They\nuse artificial intelligence or AI to create thousands of new domains in\n5 minutes. They are smart at exploiting our weak digital literacy. Many\npeople do not know the difference between \u201conline games\u201d and \u201conline\ngambling\u201d. As long as we only play blocking at the downstream end, we\nwill tire ourselves out.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/trapping-digital-giants-in-the-online-gambling-vicious-cycle-1776916406",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}