Karnataka HC to hear plea against arrests in online gambling ban on October 27
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The Karnataka high court on Friday formally observed that the government can accede to requests that no arrests be made under the new law that bans online gambling. However, there was no order to this effect, people aware of the developments said.
“There is no order or any direction. The case has been posted for Wednesday (October 27) for considering whether an interim order can be granted,” Prabhuling K Navadgi, the advocate general of Karnataka told Hindustan Times on Friday.
The observation came while the court was hearing a case filed by the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) and Mobile Premiere League (MPL) who challenged the new legislation in Karnataka that bans any sort of online gambling that has raised apprehensions among companies operating in India’s IT capital.
AIGF, in its petition, also said that the state government is introducing vagueness and morality to exercise ‘social control’.
“It is submitted that acts such as playing of games of skill, which is accepted by the society standards, cannot be forced upon the society as immoral by the respondent state, with its own notion of morality and thereby exercise ‘social control’. In any event, it is submitted that it the intention of the respondent state is irrelevant, and what has to be considered is whether the effect or operation of the law infringes fundamental rights (which is the case in the present instance),” the petition stated.
Companies have also asked the court to restrain the state government and the police from directly or indirectly ‘preventing, interfering, disturbing and/or obstructing the members of the petitioner society (as per Annexure D) from carrying on their business’.
The developments come even as police in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka continue to crack down on gambling activities.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Bengaluru on Wednesday said that it has so far registered 20 cases of betting during the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL).
“In the recently concluded IPL, CCB registered (a) total of 20 cricket betting cases and seized ₹78 lakh and arrested 27 accused,” Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (CCB) had said in a statement on October 20.
Patil told Hindustan Times that these cases were registered over the last 2 to 3 weeks or during the IPL season in which the Chennai Super Kings won the tournament.
“All this (cases) has happened before the ban,” Patil clarified, stating that gambling in itself is an offence under the Karnataka Police Act.
The amendments were tabled and passed in the recently concluded monsoon session of the state legislature which was held between September 13 to 24.
The Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which among other changes, has banned ‘any act or risking money, or otherwise on the unknown result of an event including on a game of skill,’ which has added to apprehensions as it proposes to include skill in what was earlier only on a game of chance.
The online gaming industry, which gained significant traction during the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, is slated to grow from 360 million gamers to 510 million by 2022, according to a 2021 report by All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) and EY. The report adds that 85% of these are mobile gamers.
It also estimates that online real money game players are expected to grow from 80 million in 2020 to 150 million by 2023.
Estimates indicate that Karnataka, known for its prowess in technology, accounts for around 15% of the country’s market.
In its petition, the AIGF said that there were over 400 start-ups in India, valued at $885 million in the online gaming space, and out of this around 71 online gaming start-ups are registered in Bengaluru, which is estimated to create 40,000 new jobs in the sector by 2022.
Karnataka has attracted over ₹3,000 crore of investments and employs over 1200 people.
The petition added that by virtue of the amending Act, gaming companies will not even be permitted to carry on their operations from Bengaluru to provide a platform for playing of games of skill in other states where the same is permitted under law.
To be sure, most online gaming and gambling apps have disabled their services in Karnataka after the notification of the law on October 5.
