New Delhi: Setting a roadmap and officially resolving a long-pending Centre-state conflict on the issue of online gaming, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Wednesday said that the subject will be regulated under a central Act after reaching a consensus.
“We, as very responsible lawmakers, should reach a consensus and have a Central Act which basically has been drafted in consultation with everybody and that Central Act should be effectively regulating the online gaming and gambling,” Vaishnaw said, responding to questions by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) MP T. Sumathy Thamizhachi Thangapandian in the Lok Sabha.
This statement assumes significance because, until now, online gaming was a state subject.
“Nineteen states and Union Territories have passed their own laws in this regard. Seventeen states have amended Public Gambling Act and introduced sections against online gambling within it,” the IT minister.
While answering another question by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Rajendra Agrawal, Vaishnaw said that state boundaries end up having no meaning in the digital world, indicating further that the Centre will take the lead to formulate rules for online gaming and gambling.
In December last year, the Centre appointed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the nodal ministry for online gaming. Last month, the MeitY released draft rules to regulate the content of online gaming while proposing a ban on betting and wagering.
Recently, video game companies wrote an open letter to the ministry seeking clear distinction between online gaming and gambling (‘real money games’).
The online gaming industry is demanding more clarity from the government over conflicting state rules and court orders till now and is pointing out the need for a cohesive structure.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka have banned online gambling, and there is no Act regulating it in these states.
Meanwhile, former Union minister and Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned how could the central government issue online gaming draft rules when the “entire responsibility falls into the remit of the state governments”.
“There is an inherent contradiction in the minister’s answer to the Lok Sabha and the actions of his ministry,” Tewari said. “My question is if proscribing online gaming is the responsibility of the state governments, which even the law commission in its 2018 report alludes to, then how is it that your ministry has issued draft rules? From which entry of the Union List do you draw the authority to issue those draft rules…?”
Welcoming Vaishnaw’s statement, technology and gaming lawyer Jay Sayta told ThePrint: “Allocation of the subject ‘online gaming’ to MeitY and the release of draft intermediaries guidelines rules for online gaming clearly indicate that central government wants to take up this subject.”
He said that the onus, now, to decide the fate of online gaming regulation in India may fall on Parliament but this does not mean that the states would not have any powers at all. He said, till now, the consistent stand was that the states make their own rules.
“Now, he (Vaishnaw) has shifted his stance and said that let Parliament take over. It is important to remember that even if there is a central law, the powers of the state government will not be taken away. State agencies will have a say… So, he has laid down a long-term roadmap. This is the first time publicly such a demarcation has been made,” the lawyer said.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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