Online Casinos: Risking the Gamble of Online War
On November 20th, 2020, a Tweet went out by the New Indian Express It inform followers that the Tamil Nadu governor was looking to ban online casino gaming This ban would be enforced by a 5,000INR fine and up to six months imprisonment for those that did not stop this action.
This Tweet was accompanied by an image of the new legislative law on gambling. Which is in the process of going through the High Courts.
This was how the people of India state Tamil Nadu found out the news. The first calls for war on online gambling, despite it being legal for players in India to access foreign services.
This may not end well for both parties.
The Court, the Case, and the Suspicion of Foul Play
The term “knee-jerk reaction” is something that would happily fit into the descriptiveness of the governance of many Indian states.
Recently at a federal level, we went through the motions of having access to cryptocurrencies here in India. Then buying crypto was banned, and now suddenly it looks like it may be allowed but taxed. This dance is still to conclude.
Right now, we’re seeing many states of India turn on the industry of gambling. But it has not just been the case raised in Tamil Nadu. In Telangana, August 2021, the governor raised the issue of fantasy sports being a game of skill. Therefore, recategorized as a gambling service and act.
The court case between the state and the operators like Dream11 who are based in India is currently in an appeals process.
So, what made Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami of Tamil Nadu want to shake things up?
As the Tweet from New Indian Express revealed, it captured this within the legal document.
“Due to online gaming, many innocent people including youngsters are being cheated. Some had already committed suicide because of this.”
This is indeed a powerful statement but a suggestion, ever the less.
The government has set out to right the evils of online gambling. And these are the 5 rules of the ban:
- Banning of persons who wager or bet online using computers or any alternative communication devices or resources.
- The people found gaming serve punishment with a fine of Rs.5,000/- and 6 months imprisonment.
- The people who run any gaming house will serve punishment with a fine of Rs.10,000/- and two years’ imprisonment.
- Banning of ‘electronic transfer of funds’ that have been used for wagering or betting, distributing winnings or prize money.
- Punishing persons running the companies that provide online gaming by wagering or through betting.
Why India both loves and hates gambling
India has 28 states and issues like this come up regularly, as they all move and sway with changing of the modern trends.
What makes this case interesting, is it’s the first proposed law change suggesting something that is not within the Gambling Act of 1867.
For the first time this was an attack on online casinos, that are outside of the country.
As the laws stand now, no foreign casino can advertise their services within many of the countries they are eligible to host the players of.
Therefore, comparison sites like this one and major casino affiliates become big business. They step in to help with the promotion of top Indian casinos. This way they bypass the laws and casinos hit their target market.
Gambling in India is no new-wave thing. It has been deeply seeded in the past but was uprooted in the 90 years the British Empire took rule and banned it entirely.
Since 1948 when the empire left, changes slowly came about, and as you see now, many of the tourist locations are peppered with government-owned and licensed land casinos.
The Gambling Act of 1867 was modernized and updated. Online casinos cannot be made within the territories of India, foreign sites were unable to promote, and that’s as far as the rules went.
Was the legal case won or lost?
Where does this leave casinos, players, lawyers, and the governors of state? Is this the downfall of online gambling within India? Does it open up new opportunities for regulation?
What we know is that hope echoed from the courts following the case with Tamil Nadu. The Madras High Court objected to granting them an interim stay on their orders to ban online casino games.
To quote them, they use the term “online gaming” which is a very broad generalisation. This gave issue to the courts.
For now, it is only the games that are involved in financial transactions that are banned by the government.
There is ongoing discussion over some of the clauses laid out in the legal proposal by the Tamil Nadu government. This follows a petition raised as a result of the case by an online gaming company called Junglee that has backing by the Supreme Court of India that classify their games of Rummy as games of skill. The case for their protest is that the Tamil Nadu legal fight is on all forms of gaming those based on skill and those based on chance.
