Reasons for Online Gambling Among Indonesian Teenagers

The growth of the internet in the last decade has affected many aspects of human social life, and one of the most significant effects is the massive revolutionization of human interactions. The internet's characteristics of being easily accessible from anywhere and by anyone has positive and negative effects. One of those effects is the impact on the model of gambling practice, including the payment method and its easy access for teenagers. Online gambling, as the name suggests, is a gambling practice that uses the internet and electronic devices as an intermediary. Similar to conventional gambling, all players had agreed on the rules and numbers of bets before the game began.

In the past, a gambling practice required players to meet face-to-face with each other with a physical game device and pay directly with physical money. But now, gambling practices can use virtual means, namely by utilizing the internet network so that gambling practices are carried out online and do not require a to meet directly. In online gambling games, players not only think about profits but must also be proficient in utilizing the internet network and proficient in running online gambling game strategies. The person who wins then receives their money in electronic payments such as online banking or e-money.

Initially, a player may start gambling just for fun, but as soon as they start winning, they may feel the urge to repeat the success they had reached with a much larger bet scale. Online gambling has one utmost advantage over traditional gambling practices, and that is its convenience. A player can easily gamble as long as they have a lot of free time, have some cash on their account to be used as their bet, and have an electronic device like a PC or smartphone with internet access.

According to Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan, at least 2.7 million people participated in online gambling between 2011 and 2022, with the majority of 2.1 million individuals coming from low-income class families with bet only around 100 thousand rupiah. Include those in this "low-income class" profile as teenagers, workers, farmers, housewives, and private employees.

According to a journal released by SOSMANIORA, teenagers who are involved in online gambling have their initial reasons for participating with those influences involve their surrounding environment, learning from friends to friends or from social media, this then results in a kind of deviation with online gambling is now a popular trend among teenagers. cited from the same source, teenagers knew about online gambling due to the influence of the surrounding environment. About the socio-cultural environment, this deviation or deviant behavior is a Situational Deviation, where this type of deviation or deviation is caused by the influence of various situational or social forces outside the individual, as well as the influence of situations that make the person concerned become an integral part. The situation gave a compelling influence so that the individual was forced to violate general rules and norms or formal law. Various kinds of factors make teenagers want and get involved in online gambling activities. This is based on the existence of a sense of interest, curiosity, and just want to try, especially the existence of a view of online gambling both from the procedures or rules of play that are practical and the benefits that may be obtained, without thinking about whether it will have a positive or negative impact and included in deviant acts or not.

The following are some of the causes of the increase in online gambling actors among teenagers:

• Messy Family Conditions (Broken Home).

Family factors here include how parents educate a child, parental attention to the child, parent-child interaction, family economic conditions, and parental concern for the child. As revealed by Additional Informant I, the factor causing a student to be involved in online gambling is due to the influence of the surrounding environment such as the family situation of the student. Whether parents play an important role in educating a child to make the child grow well or even vice versa he will fall into the diseases of society itself. Therefore, it is highly advised for all parents to educate their children well and give them the best attention

• Economic Problems.

From an economic perspective, if an activity is good in the category of deviant or not if it brings benefits then someone will increase their desire to do it. Profit is one of the main reasons teenagers are interested and directly involved in online gambling games without doing hard and exhausting work. The benefits offered in online gambling games are very attractive and diverse, because in the calculation there are multiples double that is very large from the amounts of bets placed by teenagers involved in online gambling games if they win. But in this case, teenagers who are involved in online gambling games are interested in the benefits that are uncertain and do not necessarily always get them because it could be the opposite, experiencing a lot of losses from the number of losses they experience. Of course, this hits the economy of the teenagers and can harm the economy of their parents respectively.

• The Influence of the Community Environment.

The environment is a factor that influences the emergence of social diseases. The state of the environment can trigger online gambling behaviour among students. Some students have close friendships with their peers, groups, and others who have already been involved in online gambling games. These students are often invited, pressured, or offered incentives to participate in online gambling games. In addition, the residential environment of these students is also heavily involved in online gambling, making it a daily activity. Furthermore, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all face-to-face learning activities are conducted at home, which has led to an increase in online gambling activities among students.

• The Influence of Technological Advancement.

Technological advancement besides its positive impact, also brings many negative impacts, especially for children who are still immature and unable to use technology meaningfully. Smartphones, one of the technological advances that is used for communication are now widely used for online gambling such as done by teenagers. Online gambling is growing rapidly because of the way it is played which is very simple with large profits quickly.

After understanding the background of teenagers participating in online gambling. It is crucial to address this issue. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) in Indonesia has taken measures to combat the spread of online gambling content. They have blocked around 846,047 online gambling websites from 2018 to July 19, 2023, using a cyber patrol team and public reports to identify the sites. The majority of these websites are from coming from foreign countries.

Despite the government's efforts, the growth of online gambling in Indonesia is unlikely to decrease anytime soon. Many factors have played a significant role in persuading individuals to participate in online gambling, and it seems that this trend will continue until these individuals realize the consequences of their actions. We need to remind our loved ones not to engage in this gambling practice. If they do, we should remind them constantly of the negative consequences that come with it.