Indonesia is a nation that stands out as one of the most peculiar in the world. It is not a single landmass but rather a chain of more than 17,500 islands that are separated into 34 distinct provinces. It is located in the middle of both Asia and Oceania and runs between the two continents.
It maintains strong economic relations with the rest of Asia as well as a number of countries in the West. However, despite the fact that many of the islands, such as Bali and Jakarta, are popular tourist destinations, the government of the nation has taken great measures to outlaw gambling in all of its forms.
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Ranking the Best Indonesian Sportsbooks
There are a great number of good betting websites around the world, and every one of them offers outstanding services to the individuals that use their site. However, the players are put in a challenging situation when it comes to choosing the top sites from the ones accessible in the competitive market.
Take into consideration the following criteria that will guide you to the best sportsbook Indonesia has to offer according to Safe Betting Sites, our trusted source:
- Appropriate safety measures
- Generous bonuses
- Wide betting markets selection
- Favorable odds
- Live betting and streaming are available
- Good variety of payment methods
- Excellent customer care
The Legal Aspect
Unfortunately, Indonesia is against the trend by firmly going in the opposite direction, while the rest of Asia is apparently seeing enormous expansion in the field of online gambling.
This is in spite of the fact that accountants have just published research in which they claim that the worth of the gambling business in Asia is projected to jump from $34 billion to over $80 billion within the next few years.
The Indonesian ministers of Social Affairs, Religious Affairs, and Communications and IT declared in 2012 that they planned to adopt new legislation aimed at making all forms of online gambling illegal. Despite these figures, the ministries have not been swayed to change their minds about their intention to do so.
This was viewed as a reaction to the large sum of money that was invested in betting on the Euro 2012 championship game. The Jakarta Post in Indonesia reported that billions of Rupiah were just being gambled digitally, and that a few people were already selling their homes in order to participate.
The widespread enforcement of Islamic law is yet another factor that contributed to the development of the country’s peculiar gambling rules, which prohibit the great majority of gambling activities.
However, rather than concentrating its efforts on a single underlying cause of online gambling, the government intends to pool all of its available resources and make an effort to address the issue from multiple angles.
According to a recent report, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology would investigate the problem from a technological perspective with the objective of preventing Indonesian residents from accessing sites that provide online gambling in its entirety.
Although wagering on games of chance on the internet is expressly forbidden in Indonesia, the government’s overarching policy has left room for a variety of exceptions and exemptions.
Putting aside the rhetoric of the government, there is presently nothing that can be done to prevent Indonesian residents from accessing websites that are housed outside of the country. In point of fact, several of the most reputable online casinos continue to accept customers from Indonesia.
Current Popular Markets
This was brought to light by a news article in 2010, which disclosed that two locally hosted websites (online casinos) were closed down after supposedly having turned over $50,000 a day. Regardless of the best efforts of the government, online casinos still are extremely popular throughout the entirety of Indonesia.
Both sports wagering and table games entice thousands of dollars a day in bets. In addition to a variety of popular sports, badminton has emerged as an enormously popular choice in Indonesia. This is evidenced by the success of the Indonesian national team, which has won 13 times in the biannual Thomas Cup.
Future of Online Gambling in Indonesia
Following the announcement of their intentions in 2012, the authorities of Indonesia have taken a variety of steps towards a total ban on online gambling. Over the course of the previous several months, a handful of hosted sites have been shut down.
The government has discovered, however, that regulating the internet is considerably more difficult than it seems, and banning websites from being accessed is notoriously tough given the variety of tools that are available to enable users to overcome regular IP blocks.
In addition to this, a handful of the most reputable online casinos are still accepting new players from Indonesia, and some of these casinos provide players with complete access to the games in their libraries.
At the moment, the sole form of legal gambling in the country is available in the form of a free-of-charge lottery that is licensed, but even this kind of gambling is falling under increasing government pressure.
For the foreseeable future, overseas websites are going to be the sole source of gambling of any significance for people of the nation, and this will remain the case unless the authorities undertake a number of significant shifts in their attitudes.
