The “M” arcade in downtown Surabaya, Indonesia, famous for roulette gambling has scarcely gathered a handful of players on its usually crowded Monday night. It used to be one of the pivotal gambling centers in the city, prior to recently conducted raid of National Police chief Gen. Sutanto.
Since then, the number of visitors dramatically decreased, but despite the crackdown, the operation of arcades was not banned. The police was therefore, criticized by many for not wholeheartedly pursuing gambling eradication.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Post holds records of youngsters betting Rp 500 (5 U.S cents) on the roulette and winning up to Rp 60,000 (U.S $ 6.25). The seeming indifference police exhibits in regards to gambling issues, causes the problem to reach epidemic proportions in Surabaya. Children on par with adults are seen gambling away whatever little they have.
Ali Maschan Moesa, the head of Nadhlatul Ulama's East Java branch, maintained that since gambling is deeply rooted within society, it is up to the police to take extreme measures to fight against this vice. Since gambling cannot be terminated at once, Ali proposed to partially restrict it to certain confined areas.
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