Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Online gambling players using phone credit deposits: Minister Setiadi

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Jakarta (ANTARA) – Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi on Tuesday disclosed the latest findings in a Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) report on a new mode of online gambling that uses phone credit deposits.

The report found that online gambling players can resort to phone credit deposits, thereby complicating the tracking process.

“Regarding this matter, we will socialize it to cellular providers,” he said.

According to him, one website containing online gambling content that uses the phone credit deposit method is pafingada.org.

Regarding these findings, the minister said his ministry will send an official letter to cellular providers asking them to take an active role in eradicating online gambling and not support this activity.

“We will write an official letter to cellular providers to firmly participate in eradicating online gambling and not facilitate online gambling,” Setiadi emphasized.

So far, the minister said that cellular providers have been very cooperative in handling online gambling.

Several cellular providers have sent SMS blasts to help raise public awareness about the dangers posed by online gambling to the family economy and social environment.

In addition, the ministry, as the responsible party for prevention in the online gambling eradication task force, is routinely cutting off access to sites containing online gambling.

In the period from July 17, 2023, to June 13, 2024, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics blocked 2,945,150 pieces of online gambling content.

The ministry also submitted a request to Bank Indonesia to close 555 e-wallet accounts linked to online gambling activities and asked the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to block 5,779 bank accounts linked to online gambling from September 18, 2023, to May 28, 2024.

From July 17, 2023, to June 13, 2024, the ministry handled 16,596 gambling page inserts on educational sites and 18,974 gambling page inserts on government sites.

The ministry has also sent warning letters to the managers of X, Telegram, Google, Meta, and TikTok since their platforms are widely used to disseminate content related to online gambling.

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