Gambling den owner arrested, 70 machines seized

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Confirming public suspicions that gambling dens are still thriving in the capital, city police arrested on Monday evening an owner of a gambling den in Beruang Cafe on Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Central Jakarta and confiscated 70 gambling machines.

Chief of the serious crimes unit of Jakarta Police Comr. Andry Wibowo said that police had arrested the owner of Cafe Beruang identified as Abdul Hadi alias Ahok and three of his employees identified as Franky Kornelis, Teddy Cahya and Irsan Alamsyah.

"We arrested them following tipoffs from local residents. We will detain them here at the headquarters until we can complete their case files. We are now bringing the machines here," Andry said.

The arrest, somehow, confirmed public suspicion that gambling, which city police claimed to have been wiped out, was still thriving in the capital.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani had vowed to crack down on gambling in the city and to fire precinct and subprecinct police chiefs if there were reports of gambling dens in their respective areas after the one-week deadline.

Despite Monday's arrest, Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Sukrawardi Dahlan will still keep his post.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto announced a one-week deadline on July 11 for provincial police chiefs to eradicate gambling in their respective areas.

Firman Gani quickly ordered his top officers, precinct, and subprecinct chiefs to wipe out all gambling in the capital within three days, with the threat that failure would result in losing their posts.

More than 500 gamblers and gambling den owners were immediately arrested and thousands of gambling machines were confiscated after Gani's pledge.

However, many people doubt that the police were serious in eliminating gambling as it is public knowledge that many high ranking police officers receive monthly payments from big gambling bosses and lower-ranking officers also got a lot of additional income from street gambling including togel (illegal lottery).

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office announced on Tuesday that they had not received a single case file on gambling from either the Jakarta or national police headquarters.

Jakarta Prosecutor's Office deputy head on intelligence Farried Haryanto said he has reviewed all case files submitted to his office and found none on gambling.

"There are many case files received from the police but none of them are on gambling," Farried told The Jakarta Post.

He said that his office should have received many gambling case files as police have arrested many alleged gamblers over the past two months.

"Most arrested gamblers or gambling operators were caught red- handed. So, it should be easy and quick to complete the case files," he said.

Earlier, an officer at city police headquarters said that some police officers had released many alleged gamblers for cash.