After the ban on online gaming in Tamil Nadu (TN), Puducherry is now planning to ban online rummy, sources from the government said. Similar to the situation in TN, many families and youths have been affected by online rummy in Puducherry which explains the ponderance of the government to ban it.

N Rangasamy, chief minister of Puducherry, said, “Congratulations to the government for banning online rummy in Tamil Nadu”. Sources say there has been an increase in people taking their lives after losing money in online rummy, thus destroying families.

Puducherry local government minister Namachivayath said, “The victims of online rummy games have made this request to ban online gaming”. The protests from the locals against online rummy have increased the chances of a similar law being introduced in Puducherry.

The reasons to pass the ordinance in TN was due to many factors and one of them was people taking their lives after losing money in these online games. Due to these arguments the ordinance was passed by the TN cabinet stating games like online poker and rummy as games of chance.

The All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) has already urged the TN government to reconsider their stance as online rummy has been ruled as a ‘game of skill’ by the Supreme Court and that banning these games will affect the online gaming industry in India as about 70% of the revenue comes from these real money games. Meanwhile, some of the gaming platforms such as Adda52, RummyCircle, PokerBaazi have started blocking users from Tamil Nadu from accessing their platforms.

As of now, only talks are going on to ban online rummy in Puducherry but Namachivayath said, “We are going to talk to Chief Minister Rangasamy about the ban in Puducherry and take a decision soon”.