20 Jan 2013

Online Gambling Laws And Regulations In India

Online gambling in India has aroused great interest among many e-commerce entrepreneurs of India. This is because online gambling is a very remunerative and profit oriented business. However, online gambling is also a complicated business filed as many laws and technical issues have to be resolved at the same time.

We have a central law on gambling called the Public Gambling Act of 1867. Similarly, we have many state laws on gambling that are mostly based upon the central law. Further, almost all the state laws are regulating real world or offline gambling in India. The exception in this regard can be found in the laws applicable in places like Goa and Sikkim.

Recently Goa has made its casino laws very stringent keep in mind the money laundering, black money and tax evasion issues in mind. Similarly, Sikkim is also in the process of harmonising its laws with the central laws.

As far as judiciary is concerned, the Supreme Court of India has made a distinction between skills based and chance based gaming activities. Of course, each case depends upon its own facts and circumstances and the respective state law and we cannot apply one decision uniformly in all cases of gambling and online gambling. 

The e-commerce laws and regulations in India are still at the infancy stage. As a matter of fact, a majority of e-commerce portals and players in India are not following the laws of the land in true letter and spirit. Surprisingly, there is a general misconception among the e-commerce players of India that for running an e-commerce website in India they need not to follow much law. On the contrary, there are well recognised legal requirements to start an e-commerce website in India and the legal formalities required for starting e-commerce business in India.

The chief among these e-commerce players are online pharmacies, online gambling and gaming portals, electronics e-commerce websites, etc. They fail to understand that use of technology has brought additional legal issues that are primarily techno legal in nature. Their continued ignorance may bring civil, criminal and financial penalties. The recent spate of FDI crackdowns by India government proves this point.

At Perry4Law and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB) we believe that cyber law due diligence, Internet intermediary liability and cyber due diligence for Indian companies must be kept in mind by various e-commerce websites and players. The skill and chance and state subject legal arguments are not sufficient to comply with complicated techno legal requirements of India as on date. So before launching an e-commerce portal, the concerned person or company must make it sure that techno legal requirements are duly complied with.

Source: E-Commerce Laws And Regulations In India.