State boundaries meaningless in digital world: Vaishnaw bats for central law on online gaming, gambling

As many as 19 states and Union territories have enacted their own laws to deal with the issue

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday stressed the need for a central law to strictly regulate online gaming and gambling in the country even though the subject comes under the jurisdiction of states and many of them have taken measures to deal with it.

Replying to questions on the issue in Lok Sabha, the Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology said there was a need for a consensus among states on the issue, saying a central law is required to be enacted to regulate online gaming and gambling in the country as there is no meaning of state boundary in the digital world.

He also called for a consensus among all political parties on the issue.

"Online gambling and illegal betting is a very important subject. As per Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, betting and gambling comes in the State list," he said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

As many as 19 states and Union territories have enacted their own laws, replacing the previous ones, to deal with the issue, while 17 states have modified the public gambling acts to bring online gaming and gambling under its ambit, the minister said.

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"Unfortunately, there is no meaning of the state's boundary in the digital world,” he said.

"My point is that we are very responsible. Lawmakers should come with a consensus and we should then have a central act which basically has been drafted in consultation with everybody to effectively regulate online games and online gambling,” he said.

Vaishnaw said the central government is “very seriously concerned” about the impact of online gaming and gambling on society.

"In such a situation, the government has taken the first right step by treating online gaming apps and websites as intermediaries and brought them under the intermediaries act," he said.

"I think that's a very good first step and as we create more consensus with the state governments, I think we should have a central law on this," he said.

The regulation has to be “very strict” because the society is impacted by addiction to online games, especially online gambling, he added.

Appreciating the minister's view that there should be a consensus with state governments on the issue, DMK member T Sumathy sought to draw Vaishnaw's attention to the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill 2022 which is still awaiting assent of Governor R N Ravi since the Assembly passed it last year.

"More than 40 youths have died so far in Tamil Nadu since the bill was passed in the Assembly and awaiting assent,” she said.

"Now my question is how does the government (Centre) proposes to ensure that the bill actually ends up seeing the light of the day," she asked, adding, “Does it also intend to ensure that other states also bring up their own legislations until a common legislation is brought forth by the Union government."

In his reply to the DMK member's question, the Union minister said, “If there is something which is happening in a particular state, I think this House should not be commenting on that."