Raipur police have issued an advisory asking all TV channels, newspapers, advertisement agencies and web portals not to show advertisements related to betting and gambling platforms.

Prashant Agrawal, the senior superintendent of Raipur police, issued the advisory on Tuesday in accordance with the recently formed Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act 2022, which bans all forms of betting and gambling while also taking into account the socioeconomic security of every citizen.

The Bill was passed back in January in the Chhattisgarh legislative assembly in order to counter the rampant illegal betting and gambling activities being conducted in the state.

According to the advisory, the state government passed the aforementioned legislation to stop the current trend of illegal money-making through betting and gambling as well as to “prevent social evil emerging in the form of gambling and online betting/gambling”.

Section 10 of the Act states that any ads of gambling and betting platforms in print or electronic media are prohibited, while Section 11 states that any violation of the provision is punishable with imprisonment term of up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 50,000.

The advisory also states that any advertisement that promotes such games through publication in print or electronic media is illegal and should not be aired through any method as well.

Incidentally, Chhattisgarh is one of the major operation centres of the illegal gambling app, Mahadev Book. The police in the state have made several arrests relating to it and have uncovered a countrywide operation of the same worth thousands of crores.