WHEN it comes to investigating online gambling, the government is like a ball in a roulette wheel: nobody is certain where it will go. The online gambling syndicate involving employees at the Communication and Digital Affairs Ministry is being slowly uncovered, but the masterminds behind it have not been identified. The claim that it is difficult to eradicate this cybercrime because of technological factors and the fact that it operates across international borders turns out to be bogus. This illegal practice has flourished because of backing from officials.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Police have named 18 suspects, 10 of them employees from the Communication and Digital Affairs Ministry. They are alleged to have protected 1,000 online gambling sites from being blocked by the government. The name of former Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi has been mentioned.

Grouped in a close-knit gang, these 18 suspects carefully orchestrated their crimes. They divided responsibilities, with some tasked with communicating with online gambling bosses, while others gathered levies and opened a satellite office in Bekasi, West Java, to control access to gambling sites. It defies common sense to think that a government institution could open a secret office to control Internet traffic to online gambling sites. And it would not be possible for this complex work to be undertaken without the blessing of senior officials.

The police give the impression of being halfhearted in their pursuit of the perpetrators and the uncovering of their links with online gambling masterminds, despite the fact that in a number of other cases, the police have always provided clear information about the perpetrators, including displaying piles of cash seized as evidence.

Therefore, it is strongly suspected that the crimes carried out by Communication and Digital Affairs Ministry employees were organized and structural, not the work of individuals. As the former top official at the Communication Ministry, Budi Arie Setiadi should take responsibility for the illegal acts of his subordinates. But the police do not seem to be seriously carrying out their plan to investigate Budi Arie.

The revelations about backing for online gambling sites are proofs that there is something amiss with the way this problem has been addressed. The establishment of an online gambling eradication task force during the era of President Joko Widodo, ostensibly to eradicate this crime, now seems to have been a pretense. Presidential Decree No. 21/2024 issued on June 21, 2024, delegated the authority to take legal action against online gambling to the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

Budi Arie, as Communication Minister, was Executive Chief of the Online Gambling Eradication Task Force. Meanwhile, National Police Chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo was Executive Chief of Law Enforcement, assisted by the Chief of the National Police Criminal Investigation Department as his deputy.

It is not surprising that some say the establishment of the online gambling eradication task force was only an attempt to improve Jokowi’s image as he neared retirement, because the establishment happened rather late. The task force was only established five months after the 2024 General Elections.

According to the Communication and Informatics Ministry, seven million Indonesians gamble online, 80 percent of them from the low-income bracket. The remainder is from varied backgrounds, including professionals, civil servants, law enforcement officers and members of the House of Representatives.

The sums involved in the online gambling business are fantastic. According to the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the total accumulated funds circulating around the business throughout 2023 until March 2024 totaled Rp427 trillion, far higher than the state spending on the health sector at Rp186.4 trillion.

It is this ‘big money’ factor that explains why the government has been tardy in eradicating online gambling. It is an open secret that illegal payments from online gambling consortia provide additional funding for non-budgetary political operations and support the secret tasks of certain institutions.

If the eradication of online gambling is simply an endeavor to improve somebody’s image, it is difficult to hope that law enforcement will extend their investigation to ministers or major bosses. Worried that senior officials will ‘sing’ and expose this dirty game if they are questioned, the police and law enforcement officials will revert to the old practice of prosecuting low-level officials and people on the ground while embracing the masterminds in order to take advantage of them at a later date.