The Allahabad High Court has given important instructions to the Uttar Pradesh government regarding online betting and gaming. The court said that the old laws have become ineffective in the digital age, so it is necessary to investigate whether online betting and gaming need to be regulated. A bench of Justice Vinod Diwakar has ordered to set up a high -level committee on this issue.
The court has directed that this committee should be constituted under the chairmanship of KV Raju, Economic Advisor of the state government. Principal Secretary (State Tax) should be made members in the committee, as well as other technical, legal and cyber experts can also be included. The committee has been given the responsibility to study and recommend how online betting and gaming can be controlled.
The court made strict comments, saying that gambling laws in India ‘Public Gambling Act, 1867’ i.e. Public Gambling Act is still in force, which is of the British period. This law was made for the time when sports like cards were played only at physical places. The court said that this law neither covers the online platform nor is it effective in today’s digital transactions and international servers.
The High Court said that at present, online gaming platforms use reward systems, non-stop notifications and in-marks temptations to attract users psychologically. Due to this, there is a serious fears of its addiction to the youth.
The court also expressed concern that most of the online betting platforms operate from outside India and their payment channels also live outside the country, which leads to a big problem in trekking and law enforcement. This also increases the chances of financial fraud and money laundering.
The court was giving this order while hearing the petition of Imran Khan and another accused. They are alleged to have been running online betting racket from home and earning crores.
