A committee to pass an emergency law against online gambling in the State, set up by Chief Minister MK Stalin recently, today submitted their recommendations to State government.
The committee was headed by retired High Court Judge K Chandru. The other members of the panel include IIT technological expert Dr Sankarraman, founder of NGO SNEHA Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, and Additional Director General of Police Vinit Dev Wankhede.
Three primary tasks were assigned to the committee. It includes finding out the dangers of online rummy game, including loss of money and suicides; research about the impacts of the game by analysing proofs and find out the impact of the advertisements that makes people play the game and how to control them in a proper way.
The previous AIADMK government brought a law — Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act of 2021 — which banned online betting games like rummy and poker with stakes. However, private companies offering such games filed a case against the ban in the Madras High Court and got it quashed.
The court had said the government had failed to provide enough scientific evidence on the need for such legislation. While the State has appealed against the HC ruling in the Supreme Court, the case is yet to be taken up by the apex court. The government has now formed the committee to ensure that the ordinance promulgated based on its recommendations would stand legal scrutiny.
The State has been seeing an increase in deaths due to online gambling, which has also been a point of discussion among opposition parties.