Online betting comes under Kerala High Court radar

Online betting comes under Kerala High Court radar

A PIL seeks a declaration of online betting and online games as illegal and wants complete ban by the provincial government due to the lure of easy money that entice people

The noose has started being tightened on the online gambling portals, which had a gala time over the past few years with the Kerala High Court issuing notices to the state government as well as some prominent celebrities who appear in advertisements of such gaming portals.

A division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Anil K Narendran has issued the notice on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by filmmaker Pauly Vadakkan.

The PIL has specifically named "Play Games 24*7 Private Ltd" and "Mobile Premier League (MPL)" along with the celebrities who promote these gambling portals including the Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, Tamanna Bhatia and Anju Varghese.

Several gambling sites have mushroomed over the years in India, making use of a loophole in the existing laws, in which games of skill are not clubbed with gambling, even if it involves betting, if it can be proved that the money is won with the use of skills.

The PIL was filed by Advocate Jomy K Jose on behalf of the petitioner Pauly Vadakkanl. It states that people belonging to the low and middle-income groups might get enticed to make some easy money and play such games, especially the card game rummy.

"These platforms that are endorsed by celebrities to attract their audiences with false promises, easily making a fool of unsuspecting people. Primary targets are middle to low-income people who are enticed to make easy money. People fall prey to these fraud platforms only to lose what is left of their life's savings. There have been reports of such scams from across the state," the petition stated, highlighting a case of a youth who died by suicide recently after losing money in online betting.

It may be recalled that several states had banned daily lotteries in the 1990s after cases of addiction started coming to light in which families of the addict suffered. A spate of suicides was also reported as many people had started buying daily lottery tickets in bulk hoping that one day the lady luck would smile on them. They would end up committing suicides after incurring heavy losses and getting into debt.

The churning to ban online gambling has in a way already started. Nagaland was the first state that banned online gaming in 2016, followed by the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Odisha. Many other states are also in the process of bringing in new legislation or amending the old legislation that prohibits gambling. The High Courts of Gujarat and Madras have also issued directions against online gambling following which the new advertisements of such portals have started giving muted warnings about the risk of losing money, as these warnings are read in a fast-forward mode.

The petitioner has contended that the Kerala Gaming Act 1960, which regulates gambling activities, is insufficient to deal with the challenges posed by online gambling due to absence of provisions covering activities done virtually via electronic devices.

The petitioner has requested the Kerala High Court to declare online gambling and betting illegal as also issuing a direction to the State Government to take appropriate steps to ban all forms of online gambling and betting.

The Delhi High Court has already directed the provincial Delhi Government and the Union of India to decide on grievances of a petitioner on a similar petition filed before it.

"When the gambling legislations are read in the context of online and digital gambling, the interpretation and applicability get complex. Online gambling platforms are engaged in illegal activities and they remain unchecked owing to deficiencies in the legal infrastructure," the PIL filed before the Kerala High Court states.