PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry government has proposed to pass a special bill to ban online gambling in the Union territory, said public works minister K Lakshminarayanan in the legislative assembly.
Addressing the House after the leader of opposition R Siva tabled a call attention motion seeking a ban on online gambling after Tamil Nadu government re-enacted a bill banning online gambling, Lakshminarayanan said the law department has already prepared a draft bill on ‘Puducherry prohibition of online gambling and regulation of online games bill 2023 and submitted the draft bill to the home department.
“Presently the said draft bill is pending for the concurrence of the finance department to ascertain any financial implication. Thereafter it will be placed before the council of ministers for its approval and would be referred to the Union government for seeking prior approval. Because any penal law to be passed by the Puducherry legislature, it has to get the concurrence of the Union government,” he said.
He recalled that the government launched efforts as early as June last year to evolve a detailed proposal to promulgate ordinance against online gaming.
He said though ‘betting and gambling’ is under state list under the seventh schedule of the constitution of India, the subject ‘online gaming’ is under the Union electronic and information technology.
He said the subject ‘online gaming’ has been included in the government of India (allocation of business) rules 1961.