Indonesia has issued a statement clarifying its proposal to offer social assistance to online gambling victims. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Clarity required

Indonesia’s Chief Cultural Affairs Minister Muhadjir Effendy has issued a statement about his government’s proposal to offer social assistance (bansos) to online gambling victims.

suggests gamblers have wrongly interpreted the government’s offer

The fact that Effendy needed to make a statement on Monday at all suggests gamblers have wrongly interpreted the government’s offer of bansos.

Effendy stated at the Eid al-Adha prayer in Jakarta that the offer of social assistance “needs to be understood clearly and not taken out of context.”

“What I meant by recipients of social assistance are the family members such as children, wives, or husbands” of online gamblers, Effendy said.

Message delivered

The culture minister made sure gamblers got the message this time round, adding that “perpetrators will definitely be dealt with legally as it is a criminal offense.”

While retail gambling is legal in Indonesia, online gambling is not. The only legal channel Filipinos can gamble online legally is via one of the Southeast Asian country’s 200+ e-Games stations.

Effendy’s clarification comes on the back of a social benefit proposal his ministry hatched up in preparation for the “establishment of the Task Force for the Eradication of Online Gambling,”

The government appointed Muhadjir as the task force’s deputy head and he will assist Chief Security Minister Hadi Tjahjanto.

families can “suffer material losses and serious mental health impacts”

Muhadjir’s remit as deputy allows him to assist families impacted by the online gambling vertical. According to Effendy, families can “suffer material losses and serious mental health impacts, which in some cases can lead to death.”

“This situation imposes a responsibility on the government,“ Muhadjir said on Monday.

Food for thought

According to the Jakata Globe, Indonesia’s government has shuttered more than 2.1 million online gambling sites. Plans are afoot to attach a task force to speed up this initiative.

News of support for the families of gamblers follows a case in the Mojokerto district of Java. A policewoman, known only as FN, allegedly doused her police husband officer in gasoline after discovering he had blown his annual bonus on online gambling, before burning him to death.