CHENNAI: Law Minister S Regupathy on Tuesday said the State government is hopeful of getting a positive verdict from the Supreme Court in an appeal challenging the Madras High Court judgment quashing the legislation enacted during the AIADMK regime to ban online gaming. He promised that the DMK government would protect the public from online gaming once the verdict is delivered by the apex court.
The minister said legal experts, on consultation, had opined that if a strong counter-petition is filed explaining the reasons, online gaming could be banned under the existing Act. “So, this government is working to establish the legislation enacted by the previous AIADMK government.”
The minister was responding to an issue raised by Edappadi K Palaniswami. He said the previous AIADMK government had banned online gaming in November 2020 by promulgating an Ordinance. The Madras High Court, however, quashed this on August 3, 2021. Immediately, online gaming companies had sent SMS to thousands of people saying, “We are depositing `5,500 in your account and please start playing online rummy.”
Palaniswami said the law minister had promised to enact new legislation to ban online gaming. After four months of the high court quashing the legislation banning online gaming, the State government filed an appeal petition before the Supreme Court on November 13, 2021. No further step, however, has been taken in this regard.