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Kerala HC orders government to bring online gambling under the Kerala Gambling Act
The Kerala HC has ordered the Government of Kerala to take a necessary decision on the matter of including online gambling within the purview of the Kerala Gaming Act, 1960 which itself is legislation that bans gambling, within a period of two or three weeks. A bench consisting of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly was conveyed by the Government Pleader that the State Police Chief has submitted a proposal to bring online gambling beneath the Kerala Gaming Act and that the Kerala Government was also on the same note.
The Court was considering a PIL filed by a film director named, Pauly Vadakkan seeking action against online websites promoting online rummy and other gambling activities. The Court had before sent notices to Virat Kohli and actors Tamanna Bhatia and Aju Varghese, who were the brand ambassadors for the rummy gambling online. "Play Games 24*7 Private Ltd" and "Mobile Premier League"- two similar working companies providing online betting platforms were also made respondents in the petition.
Advocate Jomy K Jose was the counsel advocate for the petitioner who stated that online gambling is now a growing menace in the state and the primary targets will be semi class people, middle to the low-income group who will be easily attracted to make easy money making them use all their resources wastefully. "People lose what they're left within this kind of online bettings and engage in fraud activities," said the advocate accompanying with the statement that a Kerala youth decided to suicide after he lost money in online gambling.
It was further noticed out that the High Courts of Gujarat and Madras have already passed directions against online gambling, whereas on the other hand states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Odisha have brought laws against it. In this connection, the petitioner along with his advocate intend out that the Kerala Gaming Act 1960- which regulates gambling activities, is inadequate to deal with the challenges posed by online betting as it does not have provisions and laws covering the areas of gambling taking place in online and done virtually via electronic devices.
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