Jakarta. Indonesia has mandated that 18,232 private electronic system providers (PSEs), including major firms like Google, Meta, TikTok, and X, sign an integrity pact to combat online gambling.

"Private PSEs must immediately comply with the integrity pact. Non-compliance will result in the removal of their registration," said Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi on Tuesday.

According to Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 and Ministerial Regulation No. 5 of 2020, PSEs or digital companies are required to secure electronic information on their platforms. Non-compliance may lead to administrative sanctions, including access blocking.

The list of PSEs includes 17,362 local entities and 870 foreign ones. Key local PSEs are Gojek, Tokopedia, Ovo, Traveloka, Bukalapak, PLN, and Indihome, while global PSEs include Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Linktree, and Spotify.

The government, through its Online Gambling Task Force, is ramping up efforts against online gambling, with recent measures freezing 32 gambling sites and auditing 21 payment service providers.

Financial Intelligence Unit PPATK estimates that online gambling costs Indonesians Rp 327 trillion in 2023, with losses in 2024 already surpassing Rp 100 trillion. Out of 2.37 million online gamblers, approximately 2.1 million are youths and working-age individuals. The Communications Ministry has removed about 2.95 million gambling-related contents since July 2023.

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