Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Budi Gunawan, on Monday informed that the government has devised several strategies to eliminate online gambling practices in Indonesia.

He said that the strategies were determined during a meeting with the leaders of ministries and agencies at his office in Jakarta.

“The meeting resulted in a number of comprehensive strategies against online gambling, such as the intensification of dissemination of (information on) the danger posed by online gambling,” he informed.

“This educational strategy aims to build people’s collective awareness and resistance against online gambling temptation,” he said.

Second, the government will continue to nab prominent actors involved in online gambling and tighten the noose around gamblers by severing their access to related websites and payment systems, he informed.

“The obvious goal is to break the chains of online gambling,” Gunawan stressed.

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Elaborating on the third strategy, the minister said that the government will harshly punish those found involved in online gambling practices.

“In order to build a deterrent effect, we will impose severe penalties on those found ignoring our preventive measures and committing violations, he affirmed.

During the meeting, the government also decided to establish seven cross-institutional desks, or work units, including one tasked with addressing online gambling issues. Chief of the National Police (Polri), General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, was named the head of the desk.

The other six work units include the regional head election desk, smuggling prevention desk, drug abuse eradication desk, coordination desk for boosting foreign exchange, corruption prevention desk, and desk of cybersecurity and data protection.

The participants of the meeting included Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid, Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono, Defense Deputy Minister Donny Taufanto, Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin, and National Armed Forces (TNI) commander, General Agus Subiyanto.

National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) head Hinsa Siburian; chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy, Admiral Muhammad Ali; head of the Indonesian Coast Guard (Bakamla), Vice Admiral Irvansyah; and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) head Ivan Yustiavandana also joined the meeting.

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