Online Gambling

A PROJECT SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE FIVE
YEARS INTEGRATED DEGREE OF LAW HONOURS
ON
ONLINE GAMBLING: LEGALIZATION CRICKET BETTING
Online gambling, also known as Internet gambling, is a general term for gambling using
the Internet. In the late 1990s, online gambling gained popularity. Internet gambling websites had
increased from just 15 websites in 1996, to 200 websites in 1997. A report published by Frost
and Sullivan revealed that online gambling revenues had exceeded $830 million in 1998 alone.
In the same year the first online poker rooms were introduced. Soon after in 1999, the Internet
Gambling Prohibition Act was introduced, meaning a company could not offer any online
gambling product to any U.S citizen. This did not pass. Multiplayer online gambling was also
introduced in 1999. This was the first time people could gamble, chat and interact with each
other in an interactive online environment
Gambling Laws in India
The Constitution of India in its Seventh Schedule, List II (State List) [1] empowers the State
Governments to make laws regarding gambling and betting activities. Pre-independence there
was no such distinction and the Public Gambling Act, 1867, governed gambling and betting
activities in the country. The Public Gambling Act, 1867, a central legislation enacted during the
pre-independence era, prohibits any games of chance and probability except lotteries.
The Act prohibits owning, keeping and being found in a common gaming house , however, the
Act excludes "games of skill" from its ambit. Post independence, most States have enacted State
laws governing gambling and betting that are based on the central legislation i.e. Public
Gambling Act, 1867. Some of the State laws that are enacted pertaining to gambling and betting
activities are West Bengal Gambling and Prize Competition Act, 1957, Bombay Prevention of
Gambling Act, 1887, Punjab Public Gambling Act, 1961, Kerala Gambling Act, 1960, Goa,
Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976, Sikkim Regulation of Gambling (Amendment) Act,
2005 etc.
Most of the States have passed enactments prohibiting gambling and betting (other than
exceptions like horse racing, some card games etc.) but two States i.e. Goa and Sikkim have
legalized many forms of gambling and betting.
Lodha Committee Recommendation

A threemember panel appointed by the Supreme Court also recommendedlegalising cricket betti
ng in India. The panel, headed by chairman RN Lodha, was set up to
investigate the IPL matchfixing scandal of 2013 and suggest ways to improve the functioning oft
he Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the game's powerful governing body. The Lodh
a panel has taken a realistic view on betting, saying the BCCI should have an "inbuilt mechanism
" to ensure players and
administrators don't bet on matches. Making betting legit is a view also shared by a scrum of cric
ket administrators, former cricketers, lawenforcement agencies, sports lawyers, industry bodies a
nd politicians connected with cricket.
"It's both positive and negative," says former cricketer and BJP MP Kirti Azad, who is fighting al
leged corruption in the Delhi & DistrictCricket Association. "By legalising cricket betting, the go
vernment would receive more taxes. At the same time, legalised betting mayattract a lot of poor
people." This is in all likelihood true. Social Taboo In Kerala, for example, authorities have disco
vered that lottery tickets are largely purchased by the poor. The majority of themiddle class and n
early all the affluent sections do not buy lotteries at all, according to a former head of the lotterie
s department in Kerala,possibly because of the strong social taboos associated with betting and g
ambling in India. .
Betting on an endresult is essentially predicting the winner or end score of the team batting first.
There are also options to cast 'sessionbets' and 'spot bets'. Session bets are placed on runs scored
within a range of overs (say 5 to 15 overs). Spot betting is trickier as it involves forecasting aseri
es of actions (runs scored in an over, wickets taken or noballs bowled) in an over.
Cases on Gambling
A three judge bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Dr. K.R Lakshmanan vs.
State of Tamil Nadu (AIR 1996 SC 1153) regarded horse racing as a game of skill and observed
as follows: "Betting on horse racing or athletic contests involves the assessment of a contestant's
physical capacity and the use of other evaluative skills Horse racing is an organized
institution. There is nothing illegal in horse racing: it is a lawful sport. Various states such as
Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam have exempted horse racing
activity from the ambit of gambling activity.
In the case of State of Andhra Pradesh vs. K. Satyanarayana (AIR 1968 SC 825), the Hon'ble
Supreme Court held that, "The "three card" game which goes under different names such as
"flush", "brag" etc., is a game of pure chance. Rummy, on the other hand requires a certain
amount of skill because the fall of the cards has to be memorised and the building up of Rummy
requires considerable skill in holding and discarding cards. We, cannot, therefore, say that the
game of Rummy is a game of entire chance. It is mainly and preponderantly a game of skill."
West Bengal is the only State in India that has exempted poker, rummy and other card games
from the ambit of gambling.
Advantages of Legalizing Online Batting
Economic advantage
Its clear from the various betting scandals", as we call them in India, that despite ban on betting
in India it is thriving in a big way and the Government is losing revenue in the form of taxes and
the continuous investment in curbing it is not reaping the desired results. Ravi Sawani, chief of
BCCI's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, said in each IPL game, legal bets from one exchange
in the UK are about Rs.440 crore whereas for the tournament, bets worth Rs. 66,000 crore
approximately are placed which include illegal betting syndicates as well.
Misuse of money
The revenue generated by the betting industry, if not regulated by law as soon as possible, might
prove dangerous to the governments all over the globe as its a huge amount of money which can
be used to fund terrorism and anti-social activities. The total value of the global sports betting
market is difficult to estimate because of the lack of consistency in how it is regulated in some
parts of the world. Some estimates put the value of the sports betting industry at between 700
billion U.S. dollars and 1,000 billion U.S. dollars. Illegal sports betting alone could be worth 500
billion U.S. dollars according to some estimates.
Example of other countries
United Kingdom serves the best example as how betting is beneficial if regulated. UK legalized
betting in 2005, there are some 10,000 authorized betting shops. Bookies must register with the
gambling commission, a body that sets the rules for betting. They are required to report unusual
bet settlements to the commission, which can fine and revoke licenses and prosecute illegal
gamblers. The betting industry is reported to contribute 6 billion pounds as of January 2010,
0.5% of GDP. Furthermore it employs over 100,000 people and generates 700 Million in taxes.
As the Ficci report says: In countries like UK the funds from sports betting is used for funding
of elite sports, training and exposure of athletes. Besides, funds from lottery have played
important role in funding sports development in China, UK, and South Africa etc.
References
Site referred
www.responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au
www.wsgc.wa.gov/internet-gambling-brochure
www.iracst.org
Book Referred
Online Gambling and Crime: Causes, Controls and Controversies By James Banks

Online Gambling

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A PROJECT SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE FIVE

YEARS INTEGRATED DEGREE OF LAW HONOURS

ONLINE GAMBLING: LEGALIZATION CRICKET BETTING

Lodha Committee Recommendation

Advantages of Legalizing Online Batting

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