Delhi High Court seeks Centre's stand in PIL to ban gambling, betting websites

The Delhi High Court today issued notice in a petition seeking a direction to ban and prohibit all gambling, betting, wagering websites (Avinash Mehrotra v. Union of India)..A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan sought a response from the Central government, as well as the Delhi government, in a public interest litigation preferred by one Avinash Mehrotra. .Some of these websites listed by the petitioner include Dream11, My11circle, PaytmFirstGames etc..As per the petitioner, gambling and wagering are per se illegal according to the laws of our country, and have historically been looked at as vices. The petitioner has aserted that online gambling is a far worse evil than regular gambling on account of its ease of access, ability to be played on the go etc. .Concerns regarding addiction to these games amongst youngsters have also been raised in the plea. It is further claimed that such online gambling websites are potentially a great place for carrying out hawala operations, money laundering, etc. .In spite of their obvious illegality, websites offering online gambling are available in India, primarily due to the failure of the executive to take appropriate steps to enforce the law, it is argued. .The petitioner further challenges the Centre's response to his representation that in spite of the powers under Sections 67, 69 and 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, it did not have the legislative competence to deal with the prayer to ban or block such online gambling websites. .He also seeks a direction to the Centre to recover taxes due from persons running and indulging in online gambling. Action is also sought against "unscrupulous" owners, proprietors and promoters of the online gambling websites. .The petition was filed through Advocate Awantika Manohar..The matter will be heard next on January 29. .[Online Gambling] 30 persons have died by suicide in TN, Madras High Court observes; posts PIL against celebs endorsing online games to Dec 10