CHENNAI: Law minister S Regupathy on Thursday said Governor RN Ravi was yet to accord his assent to the Bill to replace the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Ordinance, 2022. The ordinance, which bans online gambling, including online rummy and poker, is currently in force.
“The Bill was passed by the State Assembly on October 19 and was forwarded to the governor for his assent. The governor, however, is yet to give it,” the minister said in response to queries from reporters at the secretariat.
Regupathy said the governor did not seek any explanation on the Bill and said the government would provide it, if sought. To another question, the minister said 20 Bills were pending with the governor. Ravi sought explanations on a few of them and the government provided the same. The government would continue to urge the governor to give his assent to all the Bills, including the one for banning online gambling.
Meanwhile, the All India Gaming Federation has filed a petition in the Madras High Court challenging the ordinance. General secretary of the Maharashtra-based All India Gaming Federation Sunil Krishnamurthy filed the petition requesting the court to declare the ordinance “unconstitutional”.
When the petition came up for hearing before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Thursday, the bench posted the matter to November 16, following a request made by the petitioner.
The petitioner stated that online games were played in an “ethical and responsible manner” and a charter on such “games of skill” had been evolved for self-regulation. The charter permitted its members to offer the games with “pay to play” format only in States where it is legal and after procuring licences
to operate such games. It also prohibited them from offering Indian games to any person residing outside the country.
He said if any activity fell outside the ambit of “betting and gambling”, which is discussed under Entry 34 of List II to Schedule VII of the Constitution, the State government had no legislative power to ban such activity.