{"id":22869,"date":"2021-09-22T11:24:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T14:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22869"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:27:16","slug":"india-state-of-karnataka-seeks-to-ban-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-state-of-karnataka-seeks-to-ban-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"India: state of Karnataka seeks to ban online gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Karnataka state government is considering amending its Karnataka Police Act 1963 to ban all forms of gambling in the state, including online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

India.- Karnataka could be the next state in India to amend its legislation to\u00a0ban online gambling<\/strong>. The Karnataka legislative assembly has passed a bill to amend its Karnataka Police Act 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revised law provides for\u00a0three years\u2019 imprisonment instead of one year for gambling<\/strong>, and a fine of up to RS100,000. The law only excludes betting on horse races from the scope of gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra<\/strong>\u00a0said the amendment is necessary as it was difficult for the police to handle gambling and betting due to the new request from a bench of\u00a0the state high court at Dharwad, which has stopped the police raiding gambling dens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Indian Express, Araga Jnanendra said: \u201cThere is a lot of gambling happening using electronic devices and this has to be controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The bill aims to strengthen provisions of the Karnataka Police Act to make gambling a cognisable and non-bailable offence<\/strong>\u00a0and include the use of cyberspace including computer resources or any communication device as defined in the Information Technology Act, 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress leader Ramesh Kumar <\/strong>said that gambling activities should not be conducted without the police\u2019s knowledge and efforts should be made to improve the police\u2019s ability to fight crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last November, the state of Tamil Nadu<\/a> made online gaming a punishable offence with promoters facing up to two years in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ordinance amended the Tamil Nadu Gaming act of 1930, the Chennai City Police Act 1888 and the Tamil Nadu District Police Act of 1859 to make online gambling a punishable offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online rummy and similar games now carry legal consequences<\/strong>\u00a0that range from fines of Rs5,000 (US$64.45) to six months imprisonment for violators of the ban. Promotors of games and online gambling platforms could be fined Rs 10,000 (US$135) or receive up to two years in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

115 arrested for illegal gambling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Authorities arrested 115 people<\/strong> during a series of raids related to alleged illegal gambling activities<\/strong> in Kochi, Kerala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite police warnings and government measures against public gatherings<\/strong> due to Covid-19, officers had detected 270 gambling centres in the area. In a series of raids over three days, officers seized cash worth over Rs 1.25 lakh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police said: \u201cFights at these gambling centres are regular, causing a nuisance to local residents. We urge the public to inform the police of any such illegal activities occurring in their neighbourhood.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police believe that over 200 gambling centres are in operation in the area <\/strong>and that people in the surrounding areas frequent the centres, further exacerbating Covid-19 contagion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An officer said: \u201cWe have come to know that these gambling centres mushroomed after the lockdown. These games are mostly hosted in interior areas which are not easily accessible<\/strong> to the police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe persons running these centres provide all facilities, including food and liquor. In some cases, card game gambling is held at rented houses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Karnataka state government is considering amending its Karnataka Police Act 1963 to ban all forms of gambling in the state, including online gambling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Karnataka state government is advancing legislative amendments to its Police Act 1963, aiming to impose a comprehensive ban on all forms of gambling, including online activities, and significantly increase penalties. This move, following similar regulatory tightening in Tamil Nadu and intensified enforcement against illegal operations in Kerala, signals a growing trend of restrictive iGaming policy across India, posing substantial market access and operational compliance challenges for industry stakeholders.","focusai_entities":"Araga Jnanendra, Ramesh Kumar, Karnataka state government, Tamil Nadu state, Kerala police","focusai_location":"India, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kochi, Kerala, Dharwad, Chennai","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.9), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.95), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Karnataka Ban Impact","query":"What is the projected GGR impact on current iGaming operators with exposure to the Indian market, specifically considering the cumulative effect of bans in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and how might this influence capital allocation?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Analysis","query":"How might the legislative approach in Karnataka, particularly regarding the classification of offenses and enforcement challenges, influence future regulatory frameworks in other Indian states or at a federal level, and what governance frameworks are emerging?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16334],"tags":[23911,4138],"class_list":["post-22869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22892,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22869\/revisions\/22892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}