Hours after Governor R.N. Ravi gave his assent to the bill banning online rummy, the All India Gaming Federation has said that it will challenge the constitutionality of the law, once the effective date is notified. “We have full faith that our judicial system will uphold the fundamental rights of the gaming platforms and their users,” All India Gaming Federation CEO Roland Landers said in a statement.
Ravi on Monday gave his assent to the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill. The bill was readopted in the state assembly on March 23, two weeks after the governor returned it questioning the legislative competence of the state. The bill was earlier passed in the assembly based on the recommendations of the committee headed by Justice K. Chandru. Ravi had reportedly returned the bill after a meeting with the owners of various companies involved in online gambling.
Landers said that the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu government will result in banning of most online games of skill including rummy and poker. “What this law in effect does is treat and conflates games of skill as gambling and games of chance,” he said, pointing out that the law has completely misunderstood technology and prohibits random number generators, which are an integral part of fairness for online gaming.
“This is disappointing as it disregards the six decades of established legal jurisprudence and also the recent judgment of the Madras High Court which struck down a similar law. The Central government has anyway notified the online games rules, and as we have said the Central government has the rightful mandate under the Indian Constitution to regulate online gaming.”
Landers also said that the All India Gaming Federation has been engaging with the Tamil Nadu government to understand their concerns and have also made them aware of the proliferation of offshore gambling websites and apps which will flourish when constitutionally protected India apps are banned, as was have seen during the previous ban by the state government.
“We had provided various consumer protection and other measures which stop short of an outright ban. In such a scenario this is unfortunate,” Landers said while noting that it is surprising that the Tamil Nadu government had already appealed the judgment of Madras HC. “Instead of waiting for the SC judgment and in the meantime respecting the categorical decision by their own HC, they seem to have taken another unconstitutional decision which will eventually only benefit online gambling operators,” Landers said.
Stating that the federation has full faith in the judicial system, Landers, said , “As the oldest and largest industry body, representing the most number of Indian MSME start-ups, we will challenge the constitutionality of the law, once the effective date is notified. Our judicial system will uphold the fundamental rights of the gaming platforms and their users.”
