Drone Emprit Finds Nearly 4 Million Online Gambling Sites Using Govt Domain

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Founder of big data consulting firm Drone Emprit, Ismail Fahmi, said Indonesia is in an emergency of online gambling after discovering nearly four million gambling sites using the government domain .go.id. He declared this on X (formerly Twitter) on August 22, 2023.

“Try searching it yourself on Google: gacor sites.go.id. Civil servants and people visiting government websites are instantly presented with gambling information,” Ismail said on Tuesday, August 22, 2023.

Ismail allowed his tweets to be quoted by Tempo on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. Fahmi explained that government sites promoting online gambling were usually hacked or defaced and the web administrators were unaware, no longer maintained the sites, or were no longer hired to manage them.

“A total of 846,047 gambling sites have been blocked since 2018. There are still 3 million more only on government sites alone,” he said.

Drone Emprit also found online gambling promotions on 1.2 million academic sites with the ac.id domain.

Ismail, therefore, suggested that the government monitor and shut down these illegal sites by working with internet and technology service providers, enforcing the law, as well as raising awareness among the public.

Besides, the government could conduct international cooperation, strengthen IT security, open and quickly respond to reports, collaborate with the technology industry, develop or strengthen policies, and proactively encourage the public to report such online gambling sites.

“Tackling online gambling requires a comprehensive approach involving cooperation between the government, the technology industry, society, and international institutions,” Drone Emprit founder stressed.