Janata Dal (Secular) Party leader Haradanahalli Deve Gowda Kumaraswamy during a campaign rally at Raibag in Belagavi district, announced that they will be putting a ban on online gambling applications as soon as their party comes into power.

The former Karnataka Chief Minister claimed that that online gambling is harming poor families in the rural areas. Comparing online and offline gambling, Kumaraswamy said that online gambling is worse because you cannot tell who is playing.

According to The Hindu, “But whose money is that? It is your money. It is your money that they have looted from you all these years,” Kumaraswamy stated.

Recently, the Special Leave Petition (SPL) filed by the Karnataka government regarding the High Court (HC) judgments striking down the laws banning online skill games were removed from the cause list.

Not only Karnataka, but several other states are also looking to bring a law to permanently ban games like online rummy and poker under the category of online gambling despite the Supreme Court stating them as game of skill which is not gambling.

Telangana, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu ahead in the race on banning online gambling

States like Telangana and Maharashtra are working on bringing such law while Tamil Nadu have successfully passed the bill to ban online gambling in state under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill.

Under this bill, all games that involve states and real money are banned. This has started a huge debate that might span for months to come as many skill gaming operators have now stopped providing access to their platform for people in Tamil Nadu.

The All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) filed a writ petition regarding the situation in Madras HC but was denied any interim protection. As a result all the real money gaming operators have to close down business in the state or face criminal charges.