'No more gambling in Jakarta': Police. 'Wanna bet?': Public

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Dismissing widespread skepticism about their ability and commitment to eradicate gambling in the city, the Jakarta Police claimed on Monday that all gambling dens in the capital had been closed down.

Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto, who headed the city police's crackdown on gambling, said there were no more gambling operators working in the Greater Jakarta area and commended police precinct and subprecinct chiefs for doing their jobs well.

"You can see for yourself, there is no more gambling in the capital. So we will not remove any chiefs or directors from their positions. However, I will have to discuss the results with the city police chief (Insp. Gen. Firman Gani) today," he said.

Jakarta Police along with officers from seven main centers gave their progress reports on the gambling crackdown to National Police chief Gen. Sutanto over the weekend.

Sutanto, who has a track record of being tough on gambling, set a one-week deadline last Monday for provincial police chiefs to eradicate gambling in their areas. He warned them that if they did not comply, they would be fired and could face criminal charges.

Firman quickly ordered his top officers, precinct and sub- precinct chiefs to eradicate gambling in the capital in three days, with the threat that if there was a single report of gambling in any area, the police chief in that jurisdiction would be relieved of their duty.

Shortly after Firman's order, police began raiding gambling dens in Jakarta. They announced last Friday that they had arrested more 500 suspects -- both players and gambling operators.

However, several observers have called the drive against gambling a bad joke, saying police were arresting small-time gamblers only and leaving all the big fish untouched.

Executive director of the Independent Monitoring Alliance of the State Apparatus David Ridwan Betz said police had done little to raid areas like Harco Mangga Dua, Glodok in West Jakarta and Ayer island that were large gambling centers, involving billions of rupiah.

David said police already knew the identities of all the big gambling bosses in the capital.

University of Indonesia legal expert Rudy Satrio said that police needed to be brave enough to raid big gambling dens and arrest their operators because they had the authority to do so.

Bagus smiled and said nothing on Monday when asked why no rich or high-profile gamblers or operators had been arrested in the police raids on gambling dens.