Calls for legalized gambling in Sumatra spark heated debate

Calls for legalized gambling in Sumatra spark heated debate

Apriadi Gunawan
The Jakarta Post
Medan

The question of whether the North Sumatra administration should
legalize and localize gambling on Samosir island has spurred a
public debate among businesspeople, religious leaders and others.

Support for the plan has come from members of the North
Sumatra Tourism Agency and the Association of Young Indonesian
Businesspeople (Hipmi), while the provincial chapter of the
Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) opposes it.

The call to legalize gambling came from members of the North
Sumatra provincial legislative council last week, on the hells of
a similar plan in Jakarta to legalize and localize gambling in
the Thousand Islands.

The desire for legalized gambling has also spread to the North
Sulawesi town of Bitung, where Mayor Milton Kansil said his
administration will covert Lembeh island into a gambling locale.
However, the plan has drown opposition from local legislators.

These proposals to legalize gambling come in the wake of the
implementation of the regional autonomy law, which requires
provinces and regencies to create their own revenue sources to
develop their respective regions.

Those backing the call to legalize gambling in North Sumatra
argue that confining all gambling activities on Samosir island
would be a positive step, because illegal gambling operations
currently affect all levels of the community, including the
villages.

Henry Hutabarat, the chairman of the North Sumatra Tourism
Agency, said on Tuesday he was confident legalized gambling would
generate a huge amount of revenue for the regional administration
and create numerous jobs.

He said the towns of Brastagi and Parapat could be
alternatives to Samosir if villagers living on the island, which
is located on Lake Toba, rejected the presence of casinos.

Apart from already being tourist sites, Brastagi and Parapat
are easily accessible, Henry added.

But he said Samosir would be a good location for casinos once
the necessary infrastructure was developed, including an airfield
and hotels in order to attract foreign gamblers.

He added that locals should be involved in any plans to
legalize gambling, in order to provide any future casinos with
security.

The chairman of the Medan branch of Hipmi, Hendra Arbi, said
legalizing gambling was a priority for North Sumatra because the
local administration was badly in need of funds to develop the
province amid the prolonged economic crisis.

He said it would require more than Rp 100 billion to construct
a casino, hotels and other facilities on Samosir, and the
completed casino and hotels would employ between 300 and 500
people.

Hendra said he was confident numerous investors would be
interested in developing the project once the plan was approved
by the local administration.

Meanwhile, the head of the MUI in North Sumatra, Mahmud Azis
Siregar, urged the government on Tuesday not to legalize gambling
because it was haram, or prohibited under Islamic law.

He argued that even if all gambling activities were confined
in one location, gambling would still negatively impact society
as a whole. He did not elaborate.

Separately, dozens of students from the Al Wasliyah Student
Association in Medan protested in front of the local legislative
council against the legalization of gambling.

"We don't agree with the localization of gambling because it
would affect children. For us such a move is the same as a
measure to legalize it," protest leader Suhifandi Khair said.

The protesters urged the council to draft a ruling prohibiting
gambling in North Sumatra.

Local councillor Marlon Purba, who was among those who
originally raised the idea, said localized gambling on Samosir
would promote tourism in the province and generate revenue for
the provincial administration.

According to him, illegal gambling operations in North Sumatra
had a daily turnover of Rp 5 billion, and a yearly turnover of
about Rp 1.8 trillion.