Indonesia vows to crack down on 'blood-sucking' online gambling

By Stefanno Sulaiman and Stanley Widianto

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has shut down more than 2 million websites offering illegal online gambling services, the communications minister said on Friday, saying the activity was "sucking people's blood".

Online gambling is banned in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, but last year more than 3 million Indonesians engaged in an activity estimated to be worth about $20 billion, or about 1.5% of gross domestic product. , government data showed.

"We are waging a universal war against online gambling," Communications Minister Budi Arie Setiadi told Reuters in an interview.

"Online gambling is so disturbing, it's killing people's blood," said Budi, adding that online gambling damaged family finances and often weighed more heavily on women.

"This is a phenomenon that is only the tip of the iceberg."

The issue has attracted more public attention in recent months due to a series of incidents.

Last week an Indonesian police officer set her husband on fire over a gambling addiction she said had left them in financial trouble, according to media reports.

Two months ago, the army said one of its officers had committed suicide due to mounting debts related to online gambling.

In addition to shutting down some 2.1 million websites, Budi said authorities had frozen thousands of bank accounts and would soon formally set up a task force.

Most of the servers used by gambling sites originate from Cambodia, and thousands of Indonesians are working there to operate them, Budi said, without immediately providing evidence.

ECONOMIC HIT

Economists say the growing popularity of gambling in Indonesia, especially among lower-income groups, hurts long-term productivity and traps people in poverty.

Officials have also blamed gambling addiction for rising crime in some areas, a higher divorce rate and an increase in Indonesians taking out high-interest loans.

"At a macro level, online gambling encourages a lack of productivity," said Mohammad Faisal, an economist at the Jakarta-based Center for Economic Reform.

On Wednesday, Indonesia's outgoing president Joko Widodo vowed to launch a task force to tackle the issue.

"Gambling is not just betting for money," he said. "Gamble on the future, whether it's yours, your family's, or your children's."

The problem is by no means limited to Indonesia.

China, where gambling is banned, called on the Philippines on Friday to eliminate offshore gambling, describing the industry as a "social disease" that encourages crimes such as kidnapping, human trafficking and murder. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has said that illegal gaming operators, some of them run by Chinese companies, could pose a risk to national security.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman, Stanley Widianto, Ananda Teresia; Editing by Ed Davies and Gareth Jones)