Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

It shocks our collective consciousness to learn about the development of paid online gambling industry in India. To add to the grief, the gaming establishments legally enter our webspace in the false pretext of skill-based gaming. Several corporate initiatives including the recent JioZupee will eye Tamil Nadu as a sizeable market.

Greed and gaming addiction lead to misuse by unsuspecting commoners, resulting in acute financial losses and even death. Moreover, as with any gaming ecosystem, the thumb rule is 'the House always wins.

How can we allow such plunder in the land of so many rational thinkers?

Acknowledging the organized resistance from Common People and other social activist groups, the previous ADMK government enacted laws to ban the entry of online gambling in Tamil Nadu. When gaming operators successfully contested it in courts, the ADMK government informed the Madras High Court about seven online gambling deaths in the State within a 5-year span.

It will be obsolete to ponder upon the negative impacts of online gaming in the hindsight. Besides, DMK has promised to ban online gambling of any sort in its 2021 election manifesto.

Hence, I humbly request the Tamil Nadu government to enact laws to ban online gambling outright in the state.

Negative effects of online gambling:-

Money Laundering:

Money laundering is a criminal activity where profits from illegal activities are transferred into supposedly ‘legal assets’.

While security is tight, both at online and offline casinos, there is no way in knowing what the true source of the money is that players deposit into their accounts.
This makes gambling at online casino susceptible to money launderers and attracting criminal activity.

Addiction and Crime:

Frequenting online casinos can lead to addiction, which can lead to all sorts of problems. Not only can gambling addiction lead to divorce, but it can also lead to a life of crime.

Those who are desperate to finance their addiction might even resort to stealing money from friends or even from other members of the community.
People can commit suicide or murder over a lost gambling games.

Computer Hacking:
Hackers can be drawn to hacking into online casinos as huge amounts are being deposited and withdrawn from their accounts on a daily basis.

Gambling Disorder:
Gambling disorder much like all other addictions is caused by biological, psychological and social risk factors.

Biological risk factors are genetic and increase risk of addiction by creating differences in how a person responds to gambling behaviors.

Psychological risk factors include depression and anxiety that lead to gambling as a way of coping with emotional pain.

Social risk factors relate mostly to easy access to gambling and money.

There is no clear regulation is in place for online gambling in India which is giving boost to illegal as well as unnecessary online gambling market. We also know that the negative effect outweighs the positive factors.