Tamil Nadu To Ban Online Gambling, Set To Bring Legislation Soon

After the Andhra Pradesh government sought IT minister’s help to block 132 websites supposedly engaged in online real money gaming, the Tamil Nadu government is considering a total ban on online gambling websites.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the government will soon pass legislation to arrest those running and playing gambling games online.

“The Tamil Nadu government taking a note of the situation has decided to swiftly pass legislation for arresting people running the apps and those playing the gambling games that involve betting money,” he said on Twitter.

He also reiterated that the TN government will enforce the ban based on the demands of various people and organisations.

This comes in the backdrop of a petition filed by Mohammad Rizvi in Madras high court which alleged that addiction to online gambling games could cause ill effects on the health and slow down the brain growth of children. 

The court issued notices to cricketers Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly and actors Tamannaah, Rana Daggubati for endorsing gambling games.

While Virat Kohli promotes Mobile Premier League (MPL), Ganguly is the brand ambassador of My11Circle.

Since 1960, Supreme Court judgments have observed that games such as poker and rummy have a dominant element of ‘skill’, which trumps the element of ‘chance’, hence ruling that both games are skill-based card games and as such, should be exempted from the anti-gambling regulations even when played for money. 

However, given that gambling is a state subject, different states have framed their laws, some of which have outrightly banned all real money card games. These include Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, where there’s a blanket ban on card games played for stake.