Prohibiting Online Gaming : Centre asked to introduce law

Bengaluru: A number of states, including Karnataka, have pushed the Centre to pass a law outlawing online gaming with stakes on the grounds that it is ruining the lives of people, particularly young people. The request was made in October at the two-day meeting of the state's law ministers and secretaries in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat.

A significant argument was made for a central law by the law ministers of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and some other states, who claimed that numerous youths had even been driven to commit suicide after losing enormous sums of money through online betting. " As the Center is aware of the negative consequences of online gambling on society, Kiran Rijiju, the Union's minister of law, positively responded to the request," according to JC Madhuswamy, a minister of law and parliamentary affairs from Karnataka who attended the conference.

He asserted that the only way to effectively control online gaming is for Parliament to establish a central law because efforts by individual states have fallen short of judicial scrutiny. "The governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had passed laws banning online games including betting and wagering, but the high courts in those states struck down those laws on the grounds that they violated the constitution," Madhuswamy said.

He asserted that the only way to effectively control online gaming is for Parliament to establish a central law because efforts by individual states have fallen short of judicial scrutiny. "The governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had passed laws banning online games including betting and wagering, but the high courts in those states struck down those laws on the grounds that they violated the constitution," Madhuswamy said.

The Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act 2021, which outlawed and classified as a crime all online games with stakes, was overturned by the Karnataka High Court in February of this year. The court concluded that even though they are fundamentally dissimilar, the law treats games of skill and chance equally. The government introduced the law without any support from a research to determine the negative impacts of online gaming, the court further noted.

A similar law passed by the MK Stalin-led government was similarly overturned by the Madras High Court. The TN government established a panel under the direction of Justice K Chandru to examine the negative consequences of online gaming with stakes while challenging the verdict in the Supreme Court. The committee suggested a complete ban on online gaming as well as advertisements that promote their use in its report, which was turned in in June. A ban on these games is apparently being planned by the state of TN.