MP: Government and social media managers need to fund rehab for online gambling addicts

Jakarta (ANTARA) - A member of Commission III of the House of Representatives from the PKB faction, Abdullah, stated that the government, together with social media platform and application managers, needs to build and fund rehabilitation centres for online gambling (judol) addicts in all regions. He said that digital platform operators must not only reap direct or indirect profits from traffic but also bear responsibility for the social impacts caused, especially with the proliferation of judol advertisements on social media. “They are obliged to contribute to the financing of judol addict rehabilitation centres,” said Abdullah in Jakarta on Monday. He noted that rehabilitation facilities in Indonesia are currently very limited and not commensurate with the massive spread of judol, both in terms of the number of users and promotional content on digital platforms. According to him, this disparity cannot be allowed to continue. “The spread of judol is very massive, but recovery services for its victims are minimal. The state must be present and ensure there are rehabilitation centres in every region,” he said. According to him, several other countries like the United States and the United Kingdom have integrated judol handling through a rehabilitative approach, not just blocking and legal enforcement. Therefore, there needs to be a strong legal basis in handling judol addiction. “In that regulation, social media platforms and applications must contribute to building a national rehabilitation system for judol addicts,” he said. He emphasised that judol addiction is a behavioural disorder (behavioral addiction) that causes loss of self-control and has great potential to trigger crime. Moreover, he said there are rampant criminal cases triggered by judol problems, such as in Makassar where a husband assaulted his wife and cousin because he was not given money for judol. Then, there was also a child in Lahat who killed his mother after being caught stealing his mother’s gold for judol capital. Even, he said, there was a case of embezzlement of Rp1.2 billion by the Medan Subdistrict Head for online gambling, as well as theft of Rp400 million by a worker in Semarang, all related to judol. He said data from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) shows that the turnover of judol funds in Indonesia has reached hundreds to more than Rp1,000 trillion per year. “This confirms that judol is not just a legal issue, but also a national social and economic crisis. If not handled through rehabilitation, judol addiction will continue to produce new criminals. This is what we must stop,” said Abdullah.