A bet can be put into minutes. Anyone with credit cards can setup an offshore currency account with a gambling site, leaving them free to place bets on sports like Wimbledon, cricket, horse racing and Formula One, or join a virtual casino to play slot machines, roulette, blackjack, poker etc. 64.227.132.54 Companies like Flutter and Betmart accept bets on anything from who is going to win the Nobel Prize to whether Madonna is getting a divorce or not. Bets can range between a nickel to thousands of dollars and in accordance with whether you win or lose the amount is automatically adjusted back. The final balance may then either be mailed to you or left for future bets.

The law associated with online gambling in India must be understood within the country’s socio-cultural context. First, gambling, but not absolutely prohibited in India, will 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 hawaii of Goa, the lottery business remains the most post popular form of gambling.

Though gambling is not 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 in addition to the state levels. Gambling features in List II of the Constitution of India, this implies that the state governments have the authority to enact laws so as to regulate gambling in the respective states. Thus, there is absolutely no single law governing gambling in the complete country. Different states have different laws governing gambling in addition to the laws that have an application across the country. While some states have banned lotteries, other states allow state 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 cost for to be able to win a prize’. The dominant part of skill or chance shall determine the nature of the game. A game could be deemed to be gambling if the part of chance or luck predominates in deciding its outcome. Therefore, Indian courts have held that betting on horse racing and a few card games aren’t gambling. The right to attempt the business of gambling and lotteries isn’t considered as a simple right protected by the Constitution of India. It may however be remarked that the state government run lotteries make significant contributions to the state exchequer of several state governments and the Union government, and therefore there is a resistance to perform prohibition.

The following legislation is pertinent to gambling:

THE GENERAL 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 regulate public gambling in their respective jurisdictions. The penal legislations in respective states have already been amended relative to their policy on gambling. However, this legislation doesn’t have any direct impact on online gambling unless a wide interpretation is given to this is of common gaming house in order to include virtual forums as well.

The Indian Contract Act, 1872 (ICA)

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

Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998

This Act provides a framework for organizing lotteries in the country. Under this Act, hawaii governments have been authorized to market and also prohibit lotteries within their territorial jurisdiction. This Act also offers the manner where the lotteries are to be conducted and prescribes punishment in the event of breach of its provision. Lotteries not authorized by the state 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 deals with keeping lottery office. It says that whoever keeps any office or place for the purpose of drawing any lottery not being a State lottery or perhaps a lottery authorised by hawaii Government, will 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 even to deliver any goods, or to do or forbear doing anything for the advantage of any person, on any event or contingency relative or applicable to the drawing of any ticket, lot, number or figure in any such lottery, shall be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

Internet gambling

The law linked to gambling can be applicable to online gambling. All gambling contracts are considered to be wagering contracts and it is not possible to enforce such contracts under the ICA, detailed above.