Gambling hot in Batam despite public protest

Gambling hot in Batam despite public protest

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam, Riau

Despite strong protests, gambling in Batam has continued to grow,
but what has many religious and community leaders upset is that
the owners are are breaking the law right under the noses of
local security authorities.

The local administration as well as the central government
have strict laws which ban gambling in all its forms, but there
are at least five large gambling dens on the island, and almost
all the hotels on the island have provided special areas for
gambling to visitors, mostly from Malaysia and Singapore.

Goodway Hotel, a new hotel with the Mandarin Hotel group,
belonging to Jakarta-based businessman Tomy Winata, has its
special armed team to guard gambling activities in the hotel. It
is no longer a secret that Tanjung Pinggir Restaurant, Pura Jaya
Resort, Formosa Hotel, Oasis Hotel and Tering Bay in Nongsa
district have small casinos with a daily turnover of billions of
rupiah.

The local police claimed that they did not have any
information on gambling at the hotels and restaurants and they
had never been asked by the local administration to crack down on
gambling.

"The police know nothing about the gambling areas on the
island or other places," Sr. Comr. Suhartono, chief of the Batam,
Rembang and Galang Police Precincts, told The Jakarta Post over
the weekend.

Suhartono added, however that any sort of the gambling
activities would attract more foreign businessmen to the island.

Batam Mayor Nyat Kadir has recently issued a ban for hotels
and restaurants to provide gambling facilities on the island,
after a serious warning from the central government.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said recently that
despite regional autonomy, the central government would never
allow local administrations to issue a license for gambling
because it was against the Criminal Code.

The Riau Provincial Police are still investigating Nyat Kadir
for the issuance of permit to a local company to provide a casino
on Tering Bay, in Nongsa, which has sparked strong opposition
from numerous sides on the island.

Separately, a number of nongovernmental organizations called
on the central government and the National Police to step in and
halt the gambling activities which were backed up by strong, even
dangerous, organized clans from Jakarta.

Yudi Kurnain, coordinator of the National Youth Front (BOM
Warna), said the local police in Batam would not be able to close
down the gambling dens because each had powerful backing from
Jakarta.

"The police have decided to become deaf and blind, so they are
powerless. We have suspicions that the local police are also
being paid to allow the gambling," he said.

The chairman of the local chapter of the Indonesian Ulemas
Council (MUI), Assyari Abbas, concurred and said everybody living
on the island knew about the hotels and other places that
provided gambling facilities, but the police have closed their
eyes into it.

"The problem is that the local police can not close down the
gambling areas because they are tightly guarded by armed men," he
said.

Nyat Kadir conceded that gambling has been a complicated
problem which would be very difficult to cope with.

"That is why I tried to establish a special gambling arena in
Nongsa like the one the Malaysian government did with Tanah
Genting, but it has sparked protest from local people," he said.