Legislators want gambling legalized in Samosir island

Legislators want gambling legalized in Samosir island

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The Jakarta administration's controversial plan to establish a
centralized gambling den in Kepulauan Seribu (the Thousand
Islands) has prompted others to call for a similar move to be
introduced in North Sumatra.

Local legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the Golkar Party, the two largest
factions in the North Sumatra legislative council, suggested on
Friday that the provincial administration localize gambling in
Samosir island.

They argued that the proposed localization on Samosir was
crucial, as gambling in North Sumatra had increasingly been open.

Samosir island, located in Lake Toba, was the right place to
host a gambling center so as to boost the promotion of tourism at
the popular lake, the legislators added.

"Without it (gambling), tourism activities might go into
decline," Marzuki, chairman of the Golkar faction in the North
Sumatra legislative council, told The Jakarta Post.

He said that in practice gambling was found unchecked
everywhere in North Sumatra, despite such practices being
prohibited under the existing law, while security authorities
were reluctant or powerless to crack down on them.

"The idea of gambling localization should be taken into
consideration, so we will not become a hypocritical nation," he
said.

Another local councillor, Marlon Purba, who is from the PDI
Perjuangan faction, said that if gambling in North Sumatra were
localized on Samosir island, it would further promote tourism in
the province on the one hand, and generate huge additional
revenue for the provincial administration on the other.

According to him, more than Rp 5 billion was in circulation
from illegal gambling in North Sumatra every day, and around Rp
1.8 trillion per year.

"Just imagine it, illegal gambling bosses rake in trillions of
rupiah per year. The localization of gambling is expected to
ensure that at least 30 percent of that money is channeled back
into the annual tax revenues of the province," Marlon said.

In a response to the idea, spokesman for the provincial
administration Eddy Sofyan said North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal
Nurdin had yet to consider it as the presidential decree banning
gambling activities had not yet been revoked.

Eddy said gambling in North Sumatra had been localized at
Merdeka Square, Granada, in Medan, when Marah Halim served as the
province's governor and Soekarni as the city's mayor in the
1970s.