Following demands from public and political parties to ban online gaming and gambling, the State government is in the final stage of drafting an Ordinance to regulate online gaming/gambling, reported Tamil Nadu based news agencies.

Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday held a meeting with Law Minister S Regupathy, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu, Home Secretary Phanindra Reddy, DGP Sylendra Babu, Greater Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal and other senior officials of the government to discuss the provisions of the Ordinance. Earlier in July, the Chief Secretary held a meeting with top state officials to discuss the ordinance.

“The State government wanted the Ordinance enacted immediately and the ordinance will be ready in a few days. There were discussions about the previous law enacted by the State government and the Chief Minister was so concerned that the newly enacted Ordinance should not get defeated in the court. The legislation has been designed in such a way that it will be a balanced one to cater to the needs of the public as well as the industry,” said an official, who attended the meeting according to reports.

The earlier law enacted by the AIDMK government was quashed by the Madras High Court as being illegal and unconstitutional. An appeal against the decision is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

In June, the State government constituted a panel headed by retired Justice B Chandru and the panel after analysing the impact of online gaming and gambling submitted its report to the State government on June 27 recommending a ban. The report was placed before the state Cabinet and approval for enacting a legislation against online gambling and gaming was obtained on the same day.

Meanwhile, there were allegations that the panel failed to obtain the views of the gaming industry and so a consultation meeting in which the stakeholders participated. So the government in August sought public views on the proposed ordinance.