The bill that will convert Telangana’s gaming ordinances is one step away from being an act.
On Tuesday, GLaws.in reported that the state’s legislative council passed the Telangana Gaming (Amendment) Bill, 2017.
According to the report, the bill already sailed through the lower house last Nov. 13, after receiving the support of all major political parties to ban online gambling in the state.
The Gaming Amendment Bill addresses the short life span of Telangana’s gaming decrees. If you recall, the Indian state issued two ordinances several months ago to amend the Telangana’s Gaming Act of 1974. The first, called the Telangana State Gaming (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, added a new definition for “cyber space” in the gaming legislation to make betting and gambling through the internet illegal.
The second amendment added the words “online gaming with stakes” to the definition of gaming and the general description of the term “gaming,” while also deleting Section 15 of the state’s Gaming Act of 1974, which exempts ‘games of skill’ from the ambit of gambling. The decree then added a new provision authorizing the Telangana government “to issue an order within two years from the date of issue of the Ordinance to remove difficulties in implementation of the Gaming Act.”
Ordinances, however, only have a short life span in India—approximately “six weeks from the reassembly of the Legislature.” Hence, the rush to introduce the bill that would make the gaming decrees permanent.
During the legislative assembly session, Telangana Home Minister Naini Narshimha Reddy pushed for strong measures “to curb all kinds of online gaming and gambling in clubs,” according GLaws.in’s Jay Sayta.
Aside from online rummy and poker games, Telangana Rashtra Samithi party member Karne Prabhakar also pushed to abolish cricket betting as well as online matka operations run by Mumbai-based companies, while Indian National Congress member Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy wanted the bill to “try to prevent access to gambling websites using Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other similar means.”
The Gambling Amendment Bill now heads to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan’s desk to be signed into law.
