Not Happily Ever After: Rampant Online Gambling Leads to Mass Divorces in Indonesia

Jakarta. Indonesia is witnessing mass divorces as online gambling goes rampant in the country.

Financial Reports and Transactions Analysis Center (PPATK) recently alleged that Indonesia had recorded 60 million online gambling transactions as of the first quarter of 2024. These transactions amounted to over Rp 101 trillion ($6.2 billion) in value. As more Indonesians turn to online gambling for easy money, so does the number of divorce cases.

As a case in point, the Depok religious court has handled 1,133 divorce cases so far as of late June. In 864 cases, the spouses filed for divorce because of non-stop fighting, and 153 others wanted separation due to money issues. Many of these divorces happened because one of the spouses got addicted to online gambling. A lot of these online gamblers even borrowed money online to place their bets. The court’s spokesperson Kamal Syarif reported Thursday that online gambling-induced divorces had been going up since the post-pandemic 2023. 

“I believe it is one of the aftermaths of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many people still haven’t gotten a full-time job so they decided to take a shortcut to meet their needs. Because of the online gambling and loans, this caused the couples to fight,” Kamal said.

The same goes for married couples in Cianjur. The local court revealed that they had received 2,474 divorce cases so far this year, some of whom were because of online gambling. The wives were mainly the ones who filed for divorce.

Purwakarta’s religious court revealed that they had handled 789 divorce cases this year. About 60 percent of the couples wanted to separate due to money problems. The court’s spokesperson Tibyani said: “Dozens of the divorce cases that we have received were because of online gambling,” 

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