PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Friday said an amended legislation to ban online gambling was the only solution, and urged the State government to bring in an ordinance immediately and pass a legislation in the next Assembly session in March.
In a statement, he welcomed Chief Minister M K Stalin’s announcement in the Assembly that the State government would soon put an end to online gambling, but pointed out that the current approach wouldn’t fetch the desired results.
The Chief Minister has said the State government has gone on appeal in the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order quashing the law enacted to ban online gambling by the previous AIADMK regime, and the hearing is going on, and soon they will put an end to online gambling, Mr. Ramadoss said. However, he said history shows that Supreme Court verdict won’t put a full stop to online gambling.
A lot of State governments have enacted laws against online gambling and on appeals in at least in 7 cases, the Supreme Court has ruled that such laws are invalid. Even in 2016, Supreme Court has ruled against the Tamil Nadu government on the issue, Mr. Ramadoss said.
The main reason is that the Supreme Court has accepted the argument that it is a game of skill. The enactment passed by the Tamil Nadu government last year banning online gambling did not have strong points to prove that these are games of chance and not games of skill, he said.
There have been no signs of the Supreme Court taking the appeal for hearing. Till such time as a judgement is passed, we cannot allow people to lose money and end their lives by suicide, Mr. Ramadoss said while calling for the amended legislation.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)
