A bet can be put into minutes. Anyone with a credit card can setup an offshore currency account with a gambling site, leaving them absolve to place bets on sports like Wimbledon, cricket, horse racing and Formula One, or join a virtual casino to play slots, roulette, blackjack, poker etc. Companies like Flutter and Betmart accept bets on anything from who is likely to win the Nobel Prize to whether Madonna is getting a divorce or not. Bets can range between a nickel to thousands and in accordance with whether you win or lose the amount is automatically adjusted back. The final balance can then either be mailed to you or left for future bets.

The law relating to online gambling in India needs to be understood within the country’s socio-cultural context. At the outset, gambling, although not absolutely prohibited in India, does not receive express encouragement by policy makers. The Indian organized gambling industry is estimated to be worth around US$8 billion. While stringent laws have checked the proliferation of casinos and traditional gaming centres as in many other countries, barring the state of Goa, the lottery business remains probably the most post popular form of gambling.

Though gambling isn’t illegal, it is a highly controlled and regulated activity. Modern India is really a quasi-federal Constitutional democracy and the powers to legislate are distributed at the federal along with the state levels. Gambling features in List II of the Constitution of India, therefore that hawaii governments have the authority to enact laws as a way to regulate gambling in the respective states. Thus, there is absolutely no single law governing gambling in the entire country. Different states have different laws governing gambling as well as the laws with an application across the country. While some states have banned lotteries, other states allow state government lotteries marketed and distributed in other lottery playing and promoting states through private entities.

Regulation of gambling

The courts have defined gambling as ‘the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize’. The dominant part of skill or chance shall determine the nature of the game. A casino game may be deemed to be gambling if the element of chance or luck predominates in deciding its outcome. As a result, Indian courts have held that betting on horse racing and a few card games are not gambling. The right to attempt the business enterprise of gambling and lotteries isn’t considered as a simple right protected by the Constitution of India. It may however be pointed out that the state government run lotteries make significant contributions to hawaii exchequer of several state governments and the Union government, and hence there is a resistance to complete prohibition.

The next legislation is pertinent to gambling:

The Public Gaming Act, 1867

This Act provides punishment for public gambling and for keeping of a ‘common gaming house’. This Act also authorises the state governments to enact laws to modify public gambling in their respective jurisdictions. The penal legislations in respective states have been amended relative to their policy on gambling. However, this legislation does not have any direct impact on online gambling unless a broad interpretation is given to this is of common gaming house in order to include virtual forums aswell.

The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (ICA)

The ICA is a codified umbrella legislation that governs all commercial contracts in India. Under the ICA, a wagering contract may be the one which can’t be enforced. The Act lays down; ‘Agreements through wager are void, and no suit shall be brought for recovering anything alleged to be won on any wager or entrusted to anybody to abide by the result of any game or other uncertain event on which any wager is made’. Gambling, joker and prize games have held to be wagering contracts and therefore void and unenforceable. While a wagering contract isn’t illegal, it cannot be enforced in a court of law. Thus, the courts won’t entertain any cause of action that arises out of a wagering contract.

Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998

This Act offers a framework for organizing lotteries in the united kingdom. Under this Act, the state governments have been authorized to market as well as prohibit lotteries of their territorial jurisdiction. This Act also provides for the manner where the lotteries are to be conducted and prescribes punishment in case of breach of its provision. Lotteries not authorized by hawaii have already been made an offence under the Indian Penal Code. Several non-lottery playing states, like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have prohibited the sale of other state-government lotteries under this Act.

Indian Penal Code, 1860

Section 294A handles keeping lottery office. It says that whoever keeps any office or place for the intended purpose of drawing any lottery not being a State lottery or perhaps a lottery authorised by hawaii Government, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which might extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.

And whoever publishes any proposal to pay any sum, or to deliver any goods, or even to do or forbear doing anything for the benefit of any person, on any event or contingency relative or applicable to the drawing of any ticket, lot, number or figure in virtually any such lottery, will be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

Internet gambling

The law linked to gambling is also applicable to online gambling. All gambling contracts are believed to be wagering contracts in fact it is extremely hard to enforce such contracts under the ICA, detailed above.