Kholik 1

Fajar Nur Kholik

Maria Niayu Risma Novianti

Composition I

Friday, November 11, 2022

Gambling Should Be Legalized in Indonesia

Gambling legalization has been controversial annually in Indonesia. The majority of

Indonesian people is Muslim which decline the legalization of gambling. This is because

based Islam teaching, gambling is Haram and should be eradicated. According to the

Pewresearch, 88% of Indonesian are Muslim. Furthermore, the negative impact also become

the biggest reasons why this has declined by government. This data has strengthened that the

majority of rejection are came from both sides, the people and government. Although, it is

illegal to open gambling in Indonesia, the legalization must be done because it can increase

the GDP of the country as well as the tax revenue.

Gambling can be considered to help accelerate in recovering the economic. At first, it

increases real gross domestic products of the country. One of many factors that GDP can

increase is consumer spending. By legalizing gambling such as casino and lottery, Indonesian

people don’t have to do the gambling in other countries such as Singapore and Malaysia that

legalized gambling. (Still finding journal and data statistics as evidence to support this claim).

Moreover, Gambling can increase the tax revenue of the country. According to the Springer,

International publisher for the researcher community, “possibly the most important political

motivation for the introduction of gambling—either lotteries or casinos—has been an effort

to increase government tax revenue (Walker and Sobbel 294). Indonesia has proved this in

1971. The speech at Universitas Indonesia, Ali Sadikin the governor of Jakarta after legalized

gambling has claimed that the tax revenues have increased to the 8 billion rupiah which 2
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billion is from gambling tax. It has impacted 25% of the tax revenues for the Jakarta

province.

However, some critics said that it can’t be legalized as the negative impact of the

gambling. Gamcare, organization that support to stop gambling, has wrote in their article

“According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, problem gamblers are more likely than

others to suffer from low self-esteem, develop stress-related disorders, to become anxious,

have poor sleep and appetite, to develop a substance misuse problem and to suffer from

depression (How can gambling affect). While it can be true, Gambling can cause mental

illness, unfortunately it will be ignored by those who are love gambling. Ali Sadikin also said

that gambling can’t be eradicated especially for the Chinese community because it is a culture

to get rid of bad luck (Tempo). Therefore, instead of trying to get rid of gambling, which is

nothing, it is better to legalize so that government can monitor and take the advantages from

it.

In conclusion, legalization of the gambling is not a bad idea. With consideration that

gambling can’t be eradicated from some of the Indonesian people and the positive impact that

it will increase the revenue and GDP of the country, the legalization must be accelerated from

the government and the opposites have to understand.

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Works Cited

Walker, Douglas, and Russel S. Sobbel. "Social and Economic Impacts of

Gambling." Springer International Publishing, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2016, pp. 293-298.

“How can gambling affect your life?” GamCare, https://www.gamcare.org.uk/understanding-

gambling-problems/how-can-gambling-affect-your-life/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2022