Online gambling has taken center stage in the first two weeks of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. The arrest of 12 ministerial and private sector employees on suspicion of involvement in illegal activities became an overnight social media sensation.
The crackdown raises questions about the extent of the chain of command for gambling activity and whether simply shutting down websites is enough to stop the activity.
In the past week, at least 12 employees of the Ministry of Communications and Digital were arrested by Jakarta police with the cooperation of the National Police Criminal Investigation Department (Baleskrim).
Most of those detained had worked for the ministry before Prabowo took office on October 20, and the remaining four were private sector employees.
They are accused of “abuse of power” for warning and blocking online gambling sites by demanding kickbacks to allow them to continue operating, Jakarta police spokesperson Sr. Komul said. said. Ade Ali Shyam Indradi made the announcement on Friday.
“These people already knew each other.” [the gambling sites’ owners]So instead of blocking the website, we responded by renting a satellite office. [their traffic]” said Ade. compass.com.
Through the proxy site, housed in a rented storefront in Bekasi, West Java, ministry officials are said to have allowed around 1,000 websites to continue operating in the country, earning Rp 8.5 million ($536.31) for each site. .
