Woodkirk Stone
Several websites offering gambling have been banned for residents of Karnataka, as gambling is now a recognizable and non-liberating offense in the state. The Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act 2021 received the governor’s assent and was notified by the state government on Tuesday, October 5.
The law now prohibits all forms of betting or betting in connection with any game of chance, with the exception of horse racing and the lottery. The amendment also prohibits risking money on the unknown outcome of an event, including a game of skill.
On September 27, the Kerala high court lifted the Kerala government’s ban on rummy, calling it a mere game of skill, but the Karnataka government made no changes to its original bill.
“We are aware of the decisions of various courts concerning gambling. We certainly know what a game of skill is and what a game of chance is. One hundred percent of the game of skill like racing, we do not intend to punish. We know it involves skills. Playing rummy can be recreational, it may not be a game of chance, but if you bet on rummy it becomes a game of chance and is punishable. If you bet with money or coins or some other way it results in a chance profit, it is a game of chance. Betting on horse racing is different. The jockey, the horse, his pedigree are all taken into consideration before betting on a horse race. There is no question of skill in playing rummy. Your intelligence, your wit may be involved, however, you choose the card and throw the card, it involves chance, “said JC Madhuswamy, Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
Registration fees to join an online game or the online game itself are not prohibited, Madhuswamy says. Betting on the outcome of these games is punishable, under the new law, with imprisonment of up to three years and / or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
While the bill passed in the assembly earlier in September, the lack of clarity has caused confusion among industry experts. However, shortly after the change was notified, several websites banned users in Karnataka from playing gambling games. Websites that used to offer gambling now detect the location of the user’s device and notify that the user’s jurisdiction does not allow them to gamble for money but can continue to “play for money.” pleasure “.
Websites such as Ace2three and RummyCircle notify users by stating, “As part of our legal compliance, we need to ensure that our players only play in the jurisdictions where we provide our services, it appears you have logged in to from a jurisdiction that does not allow gaming on our app, this feature is not available from the location you are currently accessing, gambling is not accessible from your location, you can continue playing to “free fun chip games” are some of the posts displayed on the website while trying to play games involving money.
The government clarified that the place of gambling would be taken into account to reserve the offender, as it is not possible to have a general ban on all sites involved in betting, gambling, which may or may not come under state jurisdiction.
The new law is likely to be challenged in court by the gaming industry.
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