Tendulkar, Dhoni, Kohli: Stop Promoting Gambling

Gambling is one of the worst vices of humanity. By tempting people to win easy money it robs them of their hard earned savings and creates rift within family members. In India we grow up on stories from the Mahabharata in which we are taught how far in wrong direction a game of gambling can take us.

Wisely so, for the most time in history gambling has been frowned upon. In all civilized countries, including ours, the gambling is banned or restricted. The countries have made laws forbidding it.

However, during these testing times when jobs are uncertain and income is constantly dwindling for majority of the Indians what we are witnessing in India is normalizing of this vice. The most telling examples are apps like Dream MPL, My11Circle, PaytmFirst Games, MyTeam11, Gamezy, BalleBaazi etc.

These apps tempt people of easy money by “creating their own teams” and based on the scores that the players of their choice make they are promised money. This is nothing but gambling and the makers of these apps as well as brands of these apps such as cricketers Sachin Tendulkar (Bharat Ratna and ex Rajya Sabha MP), MS Dhoni (Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri), Virat Kohli (Padma Shri), Saurav Ganguli (Padma Shri), Harbajan Singh (Padma Shri), Virendra Sehwag (Padma Shri), are tricking people and openly advocating people to gamble/bet their money in these virtual games which are, in their own disclosure, “addictive” and “carry financial risks”.

The cricketers, who are named above, are icons for millions in India. They have a great influence on our citizens. They are expected to set morally correct examples of hard work, integrity and truthfulness. However by luring people to gamble they are not only setting contradictory examples but are also hands in gloves with people whose business is to cheat people of their earnings, no matter how small or big.  

We request you all to stop promoting gambling and thus save millions of Indians and their household from being ruined.

Thank You,
Vishnu Sharma (The Caravan Hindi)
Tasneem Q Khan (Assistant Professor, Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida)