Proposal on online betting to be placed before cabinet, HC told

BENGALURU: The State Government on Tuesday informed the High Court that a proposal for legislation on regulation of online gambling and online betting will be placed before the Cabinet. The government advocate made this submission before a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum during the hearing of a PIL filed by D R Sharada from Davanagere. 

She had sought directives to ban online gambling and betting, until an appropriate regulatory regime is established. The Online Rummy Federation (TORF) has filed an application seeking to implead as one of the respondents and was accepted. 

TORF has stated that the petition has been filed to harass and defame members of the applicant. It submitted a representation to the CM on November 23, 2020, to regulate online rummy, it said.   TORF estimated that a licence fee-based regulation can generate over Rs 1,000 crore in revenues for the government over the next five years. As in other jurisdictions across the world, operators can also contribute Rs 100 crore over the next five years to help players in psychological distress.

It stated that this will be in addition to Rs 1,000 crore in GST that TORF members will pay over the next five years. This licence fee-based regulatory approach has the added advantage of eliminating illegal and unscrupulous operators.