The phenomenon affects more and more Indonesians, especially among the poorest sectors of the population. At least 2% of those affected are children under 10 years of age. At least 14 cases of suicide in the last year caused by financial bankruptcy due to addiction. President Widodo calls for policies to counter “online judi”.
Jakarta () – Online gambling and betting among minors: it is the new “pandemic” that worries the Indonesian authorities, a threat called “judi online” for modern society, in which 2% of the total Of the people affected by addiction are children under 10 years old, who number at least 80,000. Hence the response of the Government and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who has called for policies to counteract a “disease” that is spreading among the population and that must be treated “seriously.”
The most serious reason is that the global loss amounts to billions of dollars, massively channeled to dozens of Asean countries (the Association that brings together 10 Southeast Asian nations), as the Minister of Politics, Legal Affairs and Security declared yesterday. , Hadi Tjahjanto. “Several trillion Indonesian rupees have ended up in the coffers of at least 20 countries” and the main beneficiaries “are the members of ASEAN,” confirmed the head of the Center for Information and Analysis of Financial Transactions (Ppatk), Ivan Yustiavandana. “Our agency,” added the Indonesian expert, “has frozen all these financial activities.”
Tjahjanto, former commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces, echoes a recently published report according to which there are “80 thousand” or 2% of “children suffering from gambling addiction”, but the real number could be higher. Furthermore, the minister continues, “11% are between 10 and 20 years old, that is, 440,000 people” in total. 13% are between 21 and 30 years old, that is, 520,000 people. “The majority of players with addiction problems,” he explains, “are between 30 and 50 years old and represent 40% of the total (1,640,000 people). The rest are over 50 years old, that is, 34%.”
Another critical element, according to Tjahjanto, is the fact that “the majority of gamblers” come from “low-income” social strata. They spend on average between 10,000 and 100,000 Indonesian Rupiahs, while the “richest” “burn” up to 40,000 million Indonesian Rupiahs. The number of low-income gamblers and bettors is around 80%, more than 2.3 million people. Finally, the minister confirmed that the police forces will soon eliminate all sites dedicated to online betting on the Internet. “The police forces,” he concluded, “will also soon participate in repression operations” and between four and five thousand bank accounts have already been frozen.
It is not only the addiction to gambling and betting that leads dozens of Indonesians to take their lives due to economic difficulties resulting from the loss of money and savings. They are also called online loans [pinjaman en el idioma local] those who have pushed people in an emotional wave to choose suicide to avoid the frustration caused by the total loss of their assets. Recent data explains that from early 2023 to April 2024, there are at least 14 cases of suicide caused by financial bankruptcy due to online gambling addiction.
A nun from East Java told that there are more and more people among the “destitute” who can no longer maintain their daily lives due to spending a lot of money on gambling and high-interest online loans, without being able to pay back the money. capital and interest. “Dozens of people,” explains the nun, who requests anonymity for security reasons and has knowledge in the field of finance, “came to me to express their depression, because they could no longer repay both the loan capital and their high Others lamented the loss of all their money and property. “It is urgent,” she concludes, “to launch a special apostolate for these people trapped in depression.”
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