CHENNAI: Reviving its efforts to ban online rummy, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday formed a four-member committee headed by a former judge of the Madras High Court, Justice K Chandru, to give recommendations for promulgating an ordinance to ban the game. The committee will submit its report within two weeks and the ordinance will serve as model legislation for other States, including Kerala and Karnataka, whose earlier laws were struck down by courts, said a government order issued on Friday.
The decision to form the panel was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday following a spate of suicides across the State by victims who lost money in the game. On Thursday, a woman in Chennai allegedly killed herself after her husband lost `25,000 she had kept for their child’s school fee in online rummy.
The previous AIADMK government brought a law --- Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act of 2021 --- which banned online betting games like rummy and poker with stakes. However, private companies offering such games filed a case against the ban in the Madras High Court and got it quashed. The court had said the government had failed to provide enough scientific evidence on the need for such legislation.