Online gambling law: Supreme Court issues notice on TN govt plea challenging Madras HC judgement

The Supreme Court on September 9 issued notice on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the Madras High Court's judgement that had struck down the state's ban on online gambling in August 2021.

The Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Vikram Nath has directed for the case to be listed after 10 weeks, with respondents including skill-based gaming firms Junglee Games, Play Games24x7, Head Digital Works and industry body All India Gaming Federation given four weeks to file their replies. The state government can file a rejoinder (if any) within two weeks thereafter.

The Tamil Nadu government had moved to the Supreme Court in December 2021 seeking a restoration of the ban on online games with stakes in the state after the Madras High Court had struck down the Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act of 2021 that had imposed a suspension on these games, terming it as unconstitutional in an order passed on August 3, 2021.

Subsequent to this judgement, Kerala and Karnataka high courts have also overturned similar suspensions in their respective states in the past year while the Supreme Court had upheld fantasy sports as a game of skill in July this year.

Karnataka government has also approached the Supreme Court in March 2022, challenging the Karnataka High Court judgement which had struck down the contentious provisions of the Karnataka Police Act that deals with online gambling as unconstitutional.

In its petition, it had contended that the regulatory amendments were "specifically required to suitably deal with the evolving situation arising from the ill effects of online gambling."

New legislation

This development however comes at a time when the MK Stalin-led DMK government is mulling fresh legislation to ban online games with stakes in Tamil Nadu.

It had set up a four-member committee under the retired Justice K Chandru in June 2022 to analyse the adverse effects of these games, which submitted a report in the same month recommending banning these games as well as advertisements encouraging people to play such games.

In August 2022, state law minister S Regupathy said it would bring in legislation after obtaining inputs from stakeholders including members of the public, students and online gaming service providers, as per a report by The Hindu.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has also set up a seven-member inter-ministerial task force chaired by minister of state for information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar to work on central regulations for the online gaming industry and identify a nodal ministry for the sector in May 2022.

Since then, the minister has held multiple rounds of discussions with skill gaming platforms, industry associations, lawyers and gamers who have sought a light-touch self-regulatory policy framework.