In a major blow to the online gaming industry, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Monday cleared a bill to ban online gambling, including online rummy and poker with stakes. However, the industry officials told Business Standard that they will be seeking legal recourse and will approach the High Court against the move.
This was the second time that the bill was placed before the governor for his assent. In the first instance on March 8, Ravi had returned the bill highlighting that the state had no ‘legislative competence’ to frame the bill and this was again unanimously passed by the state Assembly on March 23. “We will be taking legal advice in this regard and will be approaching the High court soon,” said Malay Kimar Shukla, Secretary, E-Gaming Federation (EGF).
Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had notified new gaming-related amendments to the IT Act 2021, allowing multiple self-regulatory organisations (SROs) to take a call on whether a real-money game should be allowed in India. Industry bodies are of the view that the Centre has the rightful mandate to regulate online gaming.
“The Central Government has anyway notified the online games rules, and as we have said the Centre has the rightful mandate under the Indian Constitution to regulate online gaming. What this (Tamil Nadu) law in effect does is (that it) treats and conflates games of skill as gambling and games of chance. The law also completely misunderstands technology and prohibits random number generators, which are an integral part of fairness for online gaming,” said Roland Landers, chief executive officer, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF). He said the move is disappointing as it disregards the six decades of established legal jurisprudence and also the recent judgment of the Madras HC which struck down a similar law.
“As the oldest and largest industry body, representing the most number of Indian MSME start-ups, we will challenge the constitutionality of the law once the effective date is notified. We have full faith that our judicial system will uphold the fundamental rights of the gaming platforms and their users,” he added.
In June, a committee headed by Justice K Chandru had submitted its report in Tamil Nadu on the effects of online games with stakes on its users. The panel not only suggested a ban on online games with stakes, but also batted for a ban on advertisements that encourage people to play them. It is not clear whether the current ordinance includes the advertisement aspect as well. The report had highlighted that in the last three years at least 17 people lost their lives in the state due to online games with stakes.
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Though the AIADMK government brought out a law banning online games in February 2021, the high court struck it down in August 2021. The Stalin government had moved the Supreme Court with an appeal in this regard in November.
“As the apex industry body for online gaming, we at the All India Gaming Federation have been engaging with the Tamil Nadu government to understand their concerns and have also made them aware of the proliferation of offshore gambling websites and apps which flourish when constitutionally protected India apps are banned, as was also seen during the previous unconstitutional ban by the state government,” Landers added.
