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.