Introduction

Gambling on sports is no longer outlandish to India. Even some ancient Indian histories hold strong reference gambling in India. The world is swiftly moving towards more flexible viewpoint towards ‘game of skill’. With the introduction of fantasy web applications like Dream11 and MPL, fantasy gaming has taken up the front seat. However despite of its mounting popularity, there are no legal list of games or any legal command that could be termed as ‘’fantasy sports’’. With the Indian online gaming industry climbing to become a one billion dollar industry by 2021, it is important to understand the law around fantasy sports and gambling in India.

Legal Position

It is a knotty problem to answer. Our lawmakers\’ vision towards gambling and betting remains in a grey area. The legality completely is dependent on whether the game qualifies ‘game of skill’ or ‘game of chance’. The age old tussle, what form of gambling is legal or not continues; it is implied from the statistics that Indians love to gamble. In accordance with a report published by the International Centre for sports security (ICCS), the betting market in India soars above US$ 130 billion. Horse racing and rummy are considered games of skill and are permitted to bet on, while cricket and poker don’t share the same fate. If we notice we can find different states have different Gambling laws even though the centralized acts exist in place. The reason behind such confusion is that it is actually the states, who under seventh schedule entry 34 List II of the Constitution of India, are empowered to make laws regarding sports in India. On a peculiar note; Gambling during Diwali has religious connotations and is considered auspicious and the Judiciary does recognize it, provided it takes place among friends and not in public places. States, other than Odisha, Assam and Telangana, have legalized gambling on the basis of skills while in these 3 states no mode of gambling is legal.

The Public Gambling Act.1867

The Act has been adopted by certain states in India while some others enacted prior to the advent of virtual/online gambling and therefore refer to gambling activities which take place in physical premises. It is the first Act which gives ideas about the game of skills. It states explicitly that the Act shall not apply to games of mere skill wherever played. Thus, talking about the present existence of online fantasy games out of its jurisdiction as they involve a considerable amount of skills i.e. mathematically more than 50%.

Information and technology act, 2000

This act instructs internet service providers and website hosts, to block access to certain types of websites and content and Section 2 includes anything relating or encouraging laundering or gambling is illegal. The inclusion of gambling to the Act is in conflict where much of India is heading. States like Sikkim has legalized sports betting and casino gambling, Goa has legal casinos, and 13 other states have legalized lottery. Even ICC once urged Indian officials to make gambling legal to prevent corruption, match fixing and tax evasion. Currently, most of gambling is illegal, however legal gambling exists for horse racing, lottery moreover, rummy also constitutes of gambling.

Is online cricket betting legal in India?

There are presently no gambling laws in India that expressly prohibits Indians from betting on cricket, but the federal government does not see, fair betting on this particular sport as a game of skill like horse racing. IPL and cricket betting has irony written all over it.

According to a report by the All India Gaming Federation, India loses almost INR 2 Lakh Crore each year due to illegal betting on cricket. About 50 million USD is wagered on every IPL match by Indian online bettors, according to industry estimates. Following the 2013 match-fixing scandal in IPL, the Lodha commission was appointed by the honorable Supreme Court to look into the matter of legalization of cricket betting. In July 2015, the Patiala High Court acquitted all 36 people accused in the Spot-fixing scandal. It was adjudged that cricket betting is not illegal and therefore no action can be taken for betting on cricket matches.

The law commission submitted a recommendation to the government in June 2018 favouring the legalization of betting in India under regulatory authority to curb money laundering. The Commission inferred that since it’s almost impossible to completely eliminate cricket betting in India; regulating cricket betting and gambling under stringent laws is the correct course of Action. The law commission suggested that in accordance to Articles 249 or Article252 of the Constitution, the Government has the jurisdiction to formulate laws for regulating gambling. Though we get a sense that India is moving slowly towards legalization of cricket betting, it still remains to be a question when exactly the government makes a concrete decision!

Moral side to be looked upon:

• Emotional neglect when one parent is consumed in an gambling addiction.
• Stressed and irritable parents may lash out at children angrily,
• Increased rates of unemployment, Bankruptcy, Forced home sales and Increased alcohol and drug abuse.
• Poor mental and physical health of families.
• Financial devastation is unavoidable. People with a gambling addiction will go to extreme measures to get money to gamble. Many people eventually resort to stealing, taking out large loans, or other desperate means that are out-of-character.
• Job loss is very high among gambling addicts. Gambling addiction may lead you to miss work, or come to work distracted. Gambling addictions will interfere with work relations, promotions, and employment.

Conclusion

With the growing number of users that pursue fantasy sports as a serious profession, the rules around these games need to be determined carefully taking care about the moral issues. This can be achieved either by adopting industry-wide guidelines or an assessment of individual game formats by a supervisory body. In the end, the growth of fantasy sports and retention of users on a platform will depend on the degree of skill and competitiveness offered by the game format and the platform. Although a good percentage is wagered legally on horse racing and lottery, a large amount is wagered on cricket and other sports via illegal and “technically illegal” channels. So it\’s high time to think upon the recommendation made by the law commission and look upon the applicability of it.

 -Chiranjeev Routray

KIIT School of Law.