Trends in Online Gambling and Government's Inability to Achieve Decent Work in Indonesia: What Should We Do?

Abstract

In the global society human trafficking is a highly contentious topic. Because of a significant increase, human trafficking has also recently gained attention on a global scale. The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection of Indonesia (PPPA) shows that 1,581 persons were victims of human trafficking between 2020 and 2022. The state's failure to give the populace respectable jobs was the primary reason of the enormous increase in human trafficking in Indonesia. The state has a responsibility to promote decent work and economic growth, according to SDG point 8. People are pushed into lucrative careers, including working overseas, as a result of the Indonesian government's inability to produce quality jobs. Unfortunately, people are frequently caught up in human trafficking as a result of the general public's ignorance of important issues pertaining to working abroad. Since human trafficking involves labor exploitation, it is usually regarded as a violation of human rights. The act of human trafficking is the same as working in the internet gambling industry. In Indonesia, online gambling is also very common for a variety of reasons, from the allure of the prizes provided to the general lack of public awareness of the risks involved. Online gambling has a domino effect that makes poverty rates rise and impedes the expansion of the Indonesian economy. Human trafficking is a problem in Cambodia since it is a nation that legalizes gambling and depends heavily on the gaming industry for its economic growth. This is particularly true for the online gambling industry. Human trafficking victims, particularly those from Indonesia, enter Cambodia through the Batam region, transit to Malaysia, and then enter Cambodia by air or boat. The ambassador of Indonesia to Cambodia stated that teenagers between the ages of 19 and 30 make up the majority of online gaming workers in Cambodia. Their desire to work in Cambodia is mostly driven by the promise of a high wage, particularly in the online gambling industry. The Indonesian ambassador to Cambodia stated that there are more than 1,200 Indonesian individuals employed in the gambling sector, despite the fact that only about 1,200 people have reported to the Indonesian Embassy and confirmed working in the industry. This is impacted by the ease of converting a tourist visa into a work visa as well as the strong need for laborers in the gambling sector in Cambodia. This is a qualitative study that gathers information from library research.