Tamil Nadu plans emergency law against online gambling as woman kills herself after losing bet

MK Stalin (File image: Twitter/@arivalayam)

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Friday ordered the formation of a committee for an emergency law against online gambling in the state.

The panel will be headed by retired high court judge K Chandru known for social advocacy and landmark judgments on gender and caste issues.

Stalin’s order comes days after a 29-year-old resident in Chennai allegedly killed herself on June 6 after she lost gold jewellery and Rs 3 lakh in an online rummy game.

Bhavani started online gambling during the first lockdown and continued playing in the hope of earning big someday despite getting warned by her family members. Having lost the money pawned with gold, she borrowed Rs 1.5 lakh from her two sisters to retrieve the jewellery.

Police found that four days before her death she had disclosed to one of her sisters that she’d lost the money and promised not to play the game again.

The state has been seeing an increase in deaths due to online gambling, which has also been a topic of discussion among opposition political parties. AIADMK coordinator O Paneerselvam urged the Tamil Nadu government to take concrete steps against online gambling that has been responsible for bringing “many families to the streets".

The Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the political arm of the powerful Vanniyar community, has called for a protest on June 10 against online gambling in the state. President of PMK and former Union health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss in a statement said that 22 people had committed suicide in the state after losing money in online gambling in the last 10 months.

Ramadoss said that the state government has failed to amend the law even after the court had suggested enacting a law to regulate online gambling.

The PMK leader said that the party has been relentlessly campaigning to enact a law to regulate online gambling and had submitted several memorandums to the government but to no avail.

BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi had earlier raised the issue of online gaming during zero hour at the Rajya Sabha, demanding the government to regulate the online gaming industry.

“This industry has boomed, alluring youngsters to engage with it and get addicted. The screen-time spent on online gaming has gone up from 2.5 hours in pre-Covid times to 4 hours during the lockdown,” Modi said in a session in December 2021.

The industry earned Rs 13,600 crore from 43.3 crore users in FY21 and the revenue is projected to rise to Rs 29,000 crore from 65.7 crore users in FY25, he said. The number of mobile downloads have also increased, the Rajya Sabha member said.