Delhi High Court seeks response from Central and Delhi governments on plea to regulate online gambling

The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Central government and the Delhi government on a petition seeking constitution of a regulatory body to decide what constitutes a game of skill and which games can be categorised as betting or gambling..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta also asked the petitioner to implead the State of Delhi as a respondent in the petition since gambling is a State subject.The Court then issued notice to both Central and Delhi governments. The matter will now be considered on November 16 along with another plea dealing with the same issues..While the petitioner had said that online betting and gambling can be restricted through the provisions of the Information Technology Act, advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, appearing for Centre, said that it cannot be done.He added that the deliberations are going on at the Central level to come out with a policy on the subject but since it is a state subject there are constitutional provisions that come in the way.“The IT act is not into this. Courts have taken a view on this. If it is a game of skill, it is a genuine venture but if it is a game of chance it becomes gambling,” Gaggar submitted..The petition filed by advocate Atul Batra argued that there is a game called Cricket Millionaire where participants predict the result of each match in the tournament and submit their results before a stipulated time and they win a promised amount if all the predictions are made correctly.Batra said there are several such platforms which promote online betting and have no relation to skills.He said that several States have enacted laws on betting and gambling since it is a State subject but there is no policy by the Central government on it.Therefore, the Union government should formulate a regulatory body as recommended by the Law Commission to regulate online gaming, the petitioner contended.“The said commission headed by Dr. Justice D.S. Chauhan, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India submitted a report on 05.07.2018. In the said report the commission recommended that online gambling and betting should be properly regulated to ensure transparency in the market and also rules to protect the vulnerable population of the society,” read the petition.