Betting (Botohan) in Indramayu Culture?
By Dudung Badrun
(Advocate & General Chairperson of the Nusantara Village Socio-Economic Activists)
The chaos surrounding the 2025 Simultaneous Village Head Elections in Indramayu on December 10, 2025, has become common knowledge, and a reliable source, namely a farmer figure with the initials S, stated:
First, when registering candidates, a bet occurred between a figure with the initials Haji A and a figure with the initials T, with the wager being whether or not S would be a candidate.
In fact, T won the bet, while S’s choice was not to be a candidate for the 2025 Village Head Election in Segeran Kidul Village.
Second, during the Village Head Election, the campaign teams of the five candidates also engaged in botoan (betting).
Betting behavior is also based on reliable sources, such as figures with the initials A from Tinumpuk Village, W from Tukdana District, T from Anjatan District, and Z from Patrol.
If the reality of betting (botoan) still persists in the village head elections, it indicates that it is part of the culture of the Indramayu community.
Therefore, betting (botoan) is not a criminal act of gambling, as it is not a criminal act as defined in Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code (KUHP), which is regulated in Article 66 paragraph (1) letter f in conjunction with Article 597.**
Indramayu, January 7, 2026
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