This Act provides punishment for public www.atari-users.net and for keeping of a ‘common gaming house’. This Act also authorises hawaii governments to enact laws to regulate public gambling within their respective jurisdictions. The penal legislations in respective states have been amended relative to their policy on gambling. However, this legislation does not have any direct impact on online gambling unless a broad interpretation is given to this is of common gaming house to be able to include virtual forums as well.
The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (ICA)
The ICA is really a codified umbrella legislation that governs all commercial contracts in India. Under the ICA, a wagering contract may be the one which cannot be enforced. The Act lays down; ‘Agreements through wager are void, no suit will be brought for recovering anything alleged to be won on any wager or entrusted to anybody to abide by the consequence of any game or other uncertain event on which any wager is made’. Gambling, lottery and prize games have held to be wagering contracts and thus void and unenforceable. While a wagering contract isn’t illegal, it can’t be enforced in a court of law. Thus, the courts will not entertain any cause of action that arises out of a wagering contract.
Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998
This Act provides a framework for organizing lotteries in the country. Under this Act, hawaii governments have been authorized to promote as well as prohibit lotteries of their territorial jurisdiction. This Act also provides for the manner in which the lotteries are to be conducted and prescribes punishment in case of breach of its provision. Lotteries not authorized by the state have been made an offence beneath the Indian Penal Code. Several non-lottery playing states, like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have prohibited the sale of other state-government lotteries under this Act.
Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 294A deals with keeping lottery office. It says that whoever keeps any office or place for the intended purpose of drawing any lottery not being a State lottery or perhaps a lottery authorised by the State Government, will be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which might extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.
And whoever publishes any proposal to cover any sum, or to deliver any goods, or to do or forbear doing anything for the benefit of anybody, on any event or contingency relative or applicable to the drawing of any ticket, lot, number or figure in any such lottery, will be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.
Internet gambling
The law related to gambling is also applicable to online gambling. All gambling contracts are believed to be wagering contracts and it is not possible to enforce such contracts under the ICA, detailed above.
Companies like Flutter and Bet mart accept bets on anything from who’s going to win the Nobel Prize to whether Madonna gets a divorce or not. Bets can range between a nickel to thousands and according to whether you win or lose the total amount is automatically adjusted back.
The final balance may then either be mailed for you or left for future bets.The law associated with online gambling in India should be understood within the country’s socio-cultural context. At the outset, gambling, although not absolutely prohibited in India, will not receive express encouragement by policy makers. The Indian organized gambling industry is estimated to be worth around US$8 billion. While stringent laws have checked the proliferation of casinos and traditional gaming centres as in many other countries, barring hawaii of Goa, the lottery business remains probably the most post popular type of gambling.
Though gambling is not illegal, this can be a highly controlled and regulated activity. Modern India is really a quasi-federal Constitutional democracy and the powers to legislate are distributed at the federal plus the state levels. Gambling features in List II of the Constitution of India, therefore that the state governments have the authority to enact laws to be able to regulate gambling in the respective states. Thus, there is no single law governing gambling in the entire country. Different states have different laws governing gambling as well as the laws with an application across the country. While some states have banned lotteries, other states allow state government lotteries marketed and distributed in other lottery playing and promoting states through private entities.
Regulation of gambling
The courts have defined gambling as ‘the payment of a cost for to be able to win a prize’. The dominant component of skill or chance shall determine the nature of the game. A game could be deemed to be gambling if the component of chance or luck predominates in deciding its outcome. Due to this fact, Indian courts have held that betting on horse racing and some card games are not gambling. The right to attempt the business of gambling and lotteries is not considered as a simple right protected by the Constitution of India. It may however be pointed out that the state government run lotteries make significant contributions to the state exchequer of several state governments and the Union government, and hence there is a resistance to complete prohibition.
