Gambling debate heats up in N. Sumatra

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.