Tamil Nadu (TN) Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has criticized Governor RN Ravi for meeting with the E-Gaming Federation (EGF) representatives at Chennai’s Raj Bhavan on December 5.

Rajan posted on Twitter saying, “No one told me a special bench (adjudicate prior to notification of a law based on a bill passed by the assembly) had been opened at Guindy. Reminiscent of the ‘we are asking questions NOW because we MAY have to hear a plea IF a law is passed AND it is challenged’ logic.”

The details of the meeting between the Governor and the EGF members have not been made public yet. When asked, the EGF members refused to share any details saying it’s confidential. However, the CEO of EGF, Sameer Barde did confirm that the meeting was regarding the bill.

The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill, 2022 was formed using an ordinance that was approved by the Governor. While the bill was passed by the state assembly on October 19, 2022, the ordinance used to make it lapsed on November 27.

The Governor has yet to approve the bill in order to fully ban online gambling and regulate online gaming. The non-assent of the bill is one of the main reasons the TN Government is criticizing the Governor.

As reported earlier, the meeting included Devhuti Bakshi, Director, Public Policy of EGF, Sanjiv Saddy, Chief Corporate Affairs, Junglee Games, Akshay Gupta, Associate Director, Public Policy, Games 24×7, Sameer Chugh, Chief Legal Officer of Games 24×7 and some others from the E-gaming industry.

An officer with the Public Relations office also confirmed to The News Minute about the occurrence of the meeting between the Governor and EGF members but refused to share any more details regarding the same.

EGF is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Mumbai that works to safeguard consumers’ interests and self-regulate the Indian e-gaming market. The federation had announced on October 19, 2022, that it will challenge the government’s ordinance banning online gaming.