BENGALURU: Following the September 4 cabinet decision, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra tabled an important Bill in the Assembly on Friday which seeks to ban online gambling or betting on mobile phone applications by amending the Karnataka Police Act, 1963. However, lottery and betting on horse races will be exempted.
The Bill, which is expected to raise a storm when it comes for debate in the Assembly next week, proposes to restrict all forms of online gambling as per the Information Technology Act, 2000. Gambling in the form of money and using tokens, including betting on cricket and money transfer, will also come under its purview.
The amendment to the Act makes online gambling a non-bailable offence and, in case of conviction, entails three years of imprisonment with a fine ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, it was one year imprisonment with Rs 1,000 penalty.
The opposition parties are expected to raise the issue of gambling allegedly happening in the guise of recreation in some clubs across Karnataka. A similar Bill was passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and some stakeholders, especially gaming technology companies, had moved court.