Kerala HC issues notice to Virat Kohli,Tamanna on plea seeking ban on online gambling in Kerala

The Kerala High Court on Wednesdayissued notice to Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli andthe state government in a plea seeking ban on online gamblingin the state.

Besides Kohli, a division bench, headed by ChiefJustice S Manikumar, also issued notices to Malayalam actorAju Varghese and South Indian actress Tamanna Bhatia.

The celebrities are the brand ambassadors of onlinerummy games.

Petitioner Pauly Vadakkan alleged online gamblingis now a growing menace in the state and the primary targetswill be middle to low income group people who will be enticedto make easy money.

People who fall to the fraud platforms often usewhat is left in their life savings, he said.

The petitioner said there have been many reportedcases across the state in which people have got scammed.

Referring to the recent alleged death by suicide ofa 28-year-old man, an ISRO employee hailing from Kattakkada inThiruvananthapuram district, the petitioner said the man hadfallen in the trap of online rummy game and pushed himself toa debt of Rs 21 lakh.

Finding no means to repay the debt, he took hislife, the petitioner alleged.

These platforms endorsed by celebrities, includingKohli, Bhatia and Varghese, attract their audience with fakepromises while in reality the probability of such winnings areslim to none, thus making a fool of unsuspecting people, theplea said.

The petitioner submitted that at present the lawgoverning gaming activities in the state, the Kerala GamingAct 1960, does not bring within its purview any onlinegambling, wagering or betting activities.

The act extends to gaming activities conducted ina ''Common gaming house'' (which is an enclosed physicalpremise such as house, room, tent etc) by using any''instrument of gaming kept or used in such enclosed physicalpremises for the accrual of profit or gain to the personowning, occupying, keeping such instruments of gaming in theenclosed physical premises.'' ''Thus a person sitting in his private house, usingthese online gambling platforms from his house arguably maynot come within the definition of a common gaming house,'' thepetitioner said.

In the plea, the petitioner noted that various HighCourts, particularly the high courts of Gujarat and TamilNadu, have directed their respective jurisdictional statelegislatures to explore the possibilities regulating onlinegaming.

In Andhra Pradesh, anordinance has beenpromulgated to bring online gambling activities within thepurview of the existing gaming legislation, the petitionersaid.

The plea seeks a ban or to regulate and monitoronline gambling games by framing laws that includes within itspurview games that are conducted online by using electronicgadgets including mobile phone, computers, laptops and othercommunication devices.