The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State Government, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, Malayalam actor Aju Varghese, and South Indian actress Tamanna Bhatia in a plea seeking to Ban Online Gambling.
The celebrities are the brand ambassadors of online rummy games.
The petitioner, Pauly Vadakkan is a film director has filed the PIL against the two companies, “Play Games 24*7 Private Ltd” and “Mobile Premier League(MPL)” alleging online gambling is now a growing menace in the state and the primary targets will be middle to low-income group people who will be enticed to make easy money.
The petitioner said there have been many reported cases across the state in which people have got scammed. People who fall to the fraud platforms often use what is left in their life savings.
The petition, while referring to the recent alleged death by suicide of a 28-year-old man, an ISRO employee hailing from Kattakkada in Thiruvananthapuram district, said the man had fallen into the trap of online rummy game and pushed himself to debt of Rs.21 lakh.
The plea said these platforms endorsed by celebrities, including Kohli, Bhatia and Varghese, attract their audience with fake promises while in reality, the probability of such winnings are slim to none, thus making a fool of unsuspecting people.
The the Kerala Gaming Act 1960 extends to gaming activities conducted in a “Common gaming house”, which is an enclosed physical premise such as house, room, tent etc. by using any instrument of gaming kept or used in such enclosed physical premises for the accrual of profit or gain to the person owning, occupying, keeping such instruments of gaming in the enclosed physical premises.
In the plea, the petitioner noted that various High Courts, particularly the high courts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, have directed their respective jurisdictional state legislatures to explore the possibilities regulating online gaming.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Anil K Narendran issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by film director Pauly Vadakkan.
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