Gambling or betting of any sort is a Cognizable offence in India. This means any person, be it the gambler or the individuals involved in it can be arrested without any warrant from the Magistrate.
But ironically, India is emerging as one of the biggest countries with the most citizens involved in gambling, either online or otherwise.
Gambling laws in India
India being the second largest country in terms of population is very well involved in activities of betting and gambling, despite them being illegal. Lottery laws in India are very strict. According to the Public Gambling Act, 1967, any sort of gambling or betting activity is illegal and is a Cognizable offence. The culprit can be sent to 3 years of jail Or be heavily fined.
However, being a bail-able offence, most of the culprits easily get away from the punishment.
Now, this raises a few questions-
Why are there so many gambling apps line Dream 11, Rummy, MPL etc.?
Is online gambling legal in India?
The Public Gambling Act of 1867, hasn’t so far been amended. When the act was passed, there was no such thing as the Internet. So online gambling is not prohibited in India.
All sorts of online gambling, betting and lottery are legal in India.
However, the states can make laws to regulate, control or ban online gambling.
Some states like Karnataka and Kerela banned any sort of online gaming or gambling in India and made it a criminal offence. They claimed that the Game of Chance is different from the Game of Skill. However, the Higher Judicial courts strictly asked them to take back the law.
Recently, on 14 February 2022, the Karnataka HC decided to stop the Karnataka Police Amendment Act which had banned any sort of online gaming and made it a criminal offence.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India reached the High court of Karnataka and claimed the following things against banning online gaming and gambling-
- The start-ups related to the online gaming industry in Karnataka were going through huge losses.
- The government was also suffering from revenue loss as the tax that was acquired from online gaming had been stopped. (Guess why the Finance Minister declared 40 per cent tax on Crypto Currency?)
The HC did Judicial Scrutiny and concluded that, according to Article 19 of Fundamental Rights, the citizens of India have the right to freedom of profession, occupation, trade and business.
So the Karnataka Police Amendment Act was against the right of the individual professing a career in online gaming or the businessmen owning the online gaming sites to freely pursue their occupation or profession.
What is Online Gambling?
Technically, online gambling is a space provided by some servers on the internet where people can earn money in any amount by putting bets or by the game of chance.
Many people even earn whopping sums going in millions, making this platform desirable for many.
Why is Online Gambling so Widespread?
Remember the game of ‘Chaucer’ in Mahabharata? That perhaps is the prime example to show where gambling stands in India!
Gambling is usually desired by people who want to earn lots of money without having to do much work. But on the same hand, people with a good knowledge of chance and probability enter into this field.
Today we see gambling being done in many fields like casinos, poker, horse racing, sports. The most important one is Cricket.
Cricket is a big reason behind online gambling in India.
Every year IPL is held in India. Big corporates and celebrities put their bet on different players as well as teams. Players are auctioned into teams in crores. So many individuals participate in betting on teams as well as players too.
From businessmen to even farmers and local shopkeepers, from adults to even school going students. Everyone takes part in betting and gambling in cricket results either offline or online.
But now online platforms have made it easy for people to take part in it. Some apps easily provide access to different groups leading to increasing competition and interest in this field.
The most important factor that leads people into this area is huge money through just chance.
Other factors responsible for people falling into online gambling in large numbers are-
- It is an easy and efficient source to earn money.
- Unemployment leads to the grave need for money.
- It is an efficient source to turn black money into white.
Factors responsible for its access to almost everyone-
- Easy availability to free internet.
- Fishing sites lead people to gambling sites very easily.
- Worldwide access to gambling through PayPal.
- No private citizen in India has ever been charged for it.
There still are some offline gambling sources that are legal in India.
- Horse Riding-
Betting on horse riders is very popular in India. Being a game of chance, the government has legalised it.
10% of revenue from betting on horse riding goes to the government in the form of tax.
- Casino-
Currently, there are Casinos in three places in India. Goa, Sikkim and Daman & Diu. All sorts of gambling a d betting is legal in these Casinos. The government gets a 30% tax from the Casinos.
- Lottery-
Earlier, the lottery was illegal in India. But later the government introduced
Lottery Act in 1998. However, it was up to the states whether they wanted to legalize the lottery or not.
Today there 13 out of 29 states where a lottery is legal. They are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Maharashtra, West Bengal State, Sikkim, and Punjab.
The government gets a 30% tax on lottery winnings.
Scam in Online Gambling
Money is a basic need for every human being. This need sometimes leads people to such heinous traps that it sometimes destroys their lives.
There are many frauds and scamming groups in India that trick the citizens into believing that they have one some whopping amount and then ask for their account details and then leaves them bankrupt.
Online gambling is an easy way to earn quick money. But we all must be aware of all the fraudsters and not fall into their trap of greed for money.
