The Supreme Court on September 16 issued notices to skill-based gaming companies and industry bodies on a Karnataka government plea against a high court order that struck down its ban on online gambling.
The Karnataka High Court on February 14, 2022 held as unconstitutional the contentious provisions of the Karnataka Police Act that deal with online gambling. The state moved the Supreme Court in March.
A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice V Ramasubramanian also clubbed the matter along with a similar case filed by the Tamil Nadu government against a Madras High Court judgment.
Among the respondents are skill-gaming industry body All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), self-regulatory fantasy sports industry body Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), gaming firms Mobile Premier League (MPL), Games24x7, Head Digital Works, Junglee Games, and Gameskraft.
On September 9 while hearing the Tamil Nadu government’s plea, a separate SC bench had listed the case for hearing after 10 weeks. Gaming companies and industry bodies were given four weeks to file their replies. The state government would get two more weeks to file a rejoinder, if any.
The Karnataka government has contended that the regulatory amendments were "specifically required to suitably deal with the evolving situation arising from the ill effects of online gambling".
Kerala and Madras high courts, too, have overturned similar suspensions in their states in the past year, while the Supreme Court had upheld fantasy sports as a game of skill in July 2021.
These developments come when the Centre is mulling a regulation for the burgeoning online gaming sector.
In May 2022, the government set up a seven-member inter-ministerial task force chaired by minister of state for information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar to work on regulations for the online gaming industry and identify a nodal ministry for the sector.
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.
A panel of government officials has sought setting a regulatory body under the IT ministry to classify games based on skill or chance, have blocking powers against prohibited game formats and adopt a stricter stance against gambling websites, according to a Reuters report.
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