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Centre And States Must Collaborate In Regulating Online Gaming & Gambling

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-02-09 10:58:53

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The Centre is right - there are no state boundaries in the digital world. With most states coming up with the own versions of the law to regulate online gaming and gambling (as it is in the state list), there are conflicting provisions in different states which will only benefit the gaming intermediaries. The Centre has already released draft rules for online gaming in India which prescribe registration with a self-regulatory body, mandatorily know-your-customer norms for users and having a grievance redressal mechanism in place. But a Central law on the subject is not out of place.

Union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has already made a strong pitch for consensus among the states to bring in a Central law on online gaming and gambling. He said that 19 states have enacted their own law on the subject to deal with the issue while 17 others have modified public gaming Acts to bring online gaming and gambling under their ambit. But he said that there was a pressing need to have a Central law on the subject and that was only possible if all states came on board. He appealed to all political parties to come to a consensus on the issue. The Centre has already done its bit by bringing online gaming companies under the Intermediaries Act.

Since it does not take much to start a gaming and gambling app, there has been a proliferation of such apps in India. Many of these companies are shady and fly-by-night operators. It is having an adverse impact on society as more and more people are getting addicted to online gaming and gambling and losing their hard earned money. The Centre recently banned a large number of such illegal apps. But in the absence of a Central law or any Central regulatory body, it is difficult to control the menace as new apps come up every day.

States and political parties must come together to help the Centre draft a robust and flexible Central law on the subject that factors in best provisions from around the world and suitably adopts them in the Indian context. Since technology is evolving, the law needs to keep ahead of the times and need to be regularly amended to bring emerging technology under its ambit. The states can ensure that the new Central law does not take away their revenues by limiting it only to regulatory aspects. That would be a huge step in keeping online gaming and gambling in check.

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