1. Betting Is Legal In India Or Not Working
2. Betting Is Legal In India Or Not
3. Betting Is Legal In India Or Not Recognized

Gambling and other forms of betting are the common thorough out the world. In India, people bet on animal fights on the street, cock fights, playing card games. Over a period of time, the people have started betting on the cricket and other national sports. With several crores of money being transacted illegally and the government’s failure to end the menace, there is a wide spread comment about the need to create a robust regulatory framework for legalizing gambling. Will legalizing gambling end the menace ?

Advantages

Gambling in India is only allowed in 3 place including Goa, Daman and Sikkim, There are two famous casinos in Sikkim, one is Daman, Ten in Goa, few are land based and four are floating casinos on the Mandovi River. The most popular casinos in India also contributed huge revenue to state and tourism. Michigan legal online gambling and sports betting to start Friday JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press 1/19/2021 U.S. Shelters received more than 7,000 migrant children in February.

Curb black money and terror financing

The reasons to look at legalising and regulating gambling are several. First, gambling is already operating in a spread out and operating in a huge way. Despite devoting several legal measure andc covert actions, legal enforcement authorities are not able to curb it. Gambling and betting is mostly done very secretly and which is handled in a delicate manner. It is mostly headed underworld and strong syndicates who use the unaccounted money earned from gambling activities for nefarious activities. These activities could include terror financing. So legalising the activity will not only help curtail an important source of black money and stop funds flowing to terror agencies.

Huge Revenues

Estimates about the size of the gambling market in India vary according to various private and government agencies. According to KPMG report, the size could be around $ 50- $60 billion, while other, more recent, studies from financial institution peg the value even to higher numbers. Even a normal estimate suggests with just 15 per cent GST, the government could earn tens of thousands of crores by legalising sports betting. If online gambling and casinos are also permitted in a strong restrictive way, the estimated tax revenue very huge to both state and central government. These can be used to fund health and other constructive projects of the government.

Employment opportunities

Apart from revenue generation, legalizing the gambling will surely create huge employment. Globally, wherever gambling is regulated, it has created a massive opportunity for employment generation. In India it could create direct and indirect jobs for around 25-40 lakh. How ? U.S. employs over 2.5 lakh people in the gambling industry, while over 1 lakh individuals are employed in the U.K.

Disadvantages

Spoils the integrity:

Integrity is a core component in any activity, but in sports and games is crucial to its success. It serves the basis for the enjoyment of participants and spectators. But if the gambling and betting are legalized, integrity and honesty will be under great threat. Match fixing and spot fixing would drastically increase. Athletes and players will be tempted. Psychologically, players attracted to gambling naturally because of their competitive nature, media success, money and self-assured sense of entitlement.

Affects common man

If betting were to be legalised, this lower class of the country will affect. Betting attracts the common man to try their luck and tempts them to play with money. It is very tough to imagine the consequences of a poor person losing his hard-earned money or his life saving on betting.Law commission report on legalizing gambling

India’s Law Commission has submitted a recommendation to government that sports betting and gambling be legalized and regulated. In a report titled Legal Framework: Gambling and Sports Betting including Cricket in India, which was submitted to law minister, the Law Commission said that shutting down illegal gambling and enforcing a ban on sports betting had failed to produce the desired results, leading instead to an increase in illegal gambling and black money circulation. “Since it is not possible to prevent these activities completely, effectively regulating them remains the only viable option,” the report said.

Among the recommendations is for a law to be enacted for the regulation of gambling that can then be adopted by India’s various states. The report also recommends that gambling services should be offered only by licensed Indian operators who would be granted licenses by the regulatory authority and that gamblers should have the number or size of bets capped within a given time period. “The nature of stakes should be restricted to money with a linkage to PAN card and Aadhar card and the betting amount should be prescribed by law, having an upper limit on the amount one can legally stake in a gamble, which may be on the basis of the deposit, winnings or losses,” the report said. It was also suggested that gambling be classified into two distinct categories – “proper gambling” and “small gambling” – with “proper gambling” referring to high stakes play. In a submission to the Law Commission’s report, local gaming industry body the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) said it had recommended a regulatory regime that would allow authorities to supervise the sports betting market.

Conclusion

There is an overwhelming support backed by the law commission report for the idea to legalize gambling. Some of the important points put forward are the failure to control illegal betting (large scale), government losing a huge revenue-earning opportunity, employment generation. So the only recourse left is to legalise, regulate and tax which can lead to huge income. Those these opinions have strong points, but it is no guarantee that legalising betting will generate revenue as projected, How ? Did the strong economic steps like demonetisation and giving more power to tax authorities have made a huge impact on the revenue inflow or curbed black money ? Legalizing gambling would also lead to demands for legal frame work other nefarious activities like prostitution, drugs etc. So the government has to weigh the pros and cons before indulging the act of legalizing gambling, which can lead to a complex impact on the society.

Read More Current-Affairs Articles

Author - Associate Aliza Abdin

This article would deal with the explanation of lucky draw and lottery and solve the most common question-Is lottery legal in India?

What is a Lucky Draw?

A typical kind of lucky draw is a type of game usually played in carnivals where contestants try their luck and pick out a gift from a container without looking. The gifts range from very expensive ones to cheaper smaller ones. It is also known as lucky dip. Nowadays, lucky draws are mostly all about spinning wheels, etc.

Lucky draws also include raffles in which a person buys a cheap raffle ticket and try their luck at winning big prizes like cars, bikes, mobile phones, refrigerators, etc. Raffles and lucky draws are most common in school fetes, carnivals, festivals, etc.

What is a Lottery?

Lottery is a type of gambling in which a person buys a lottery ticket bearing a specific number for a small amount. When all tickets had been sold out a number is drawn at random, for a prize. The prizes usually include big cash prizes for the top three contestants. Many countries have banned lotteries in an attempt to stop gambling and bankruptcy in the poor section of the country; while other countries organize national and state lotteries by following certain rules like licensed vendors to sell lottery tickets and a ban on selling to children. Lotteries were very popular worldwide during the 90s and were a source of income but since the start of the 21st century they have been made illegal in most countries.

There are many kinds of lotteries like single digit or double digit, a 50-50 draw where the lottery organizers give half the amount earned as prize money. The lotteries allow governments to make revenue without generating taxes.

Legal Status of Lotteries in India

So a big question be answered is- is lottery legal in India? Lottery in India is governed by the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998, according to which the states are allowed to conduct a lottery following 11 conditions. A few years ago, the Supreme Court of India permitted all state governments to ban or allow lottery in India accordingly and refused to make the sale of lottery a fundamental right. This law however does not allow the sale of one digit lottery.

As of 2019 lottery in India doesn’t have all India ban but all states have banned lotteries except for the 13 states that include Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram. Lotteries are very popular in these states and the social activists are continuously trying to raise awareness about how the people are getting addicted to gambling.

But another concept to be added here is the legal online lottery in India. Lotto India is the legal online lottery in India for the players and has jackpots more that the others.

Is the Ban Effective?

As all bans, the bans on lotteries is also not very successful as most trade is carried out underground by illegal means and thus the trade still continues but the government does not get revenues. Some of the lotteries function online that give small prizes for single digit lotteries daily and big prizes for weekly draws. In spite of being banned, lotteries have not disappeared completely and are very popular for earning money illegally. The online version of lotteries does not require the players to disclose their identities and thus they can participate anonymously and avoid getting caught.

Why is Lucky Draw Legal in India whereas Lottery is not?

So to answer this question as to why is lucky draw legal in India recently the NITI Aayog clarified that the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998 Section 2(b) states that the lucky draws which are conducted to promote digital transactions do not come under the category of lottery and are thus are not banned. The Act defines lottery as ‘a scheme, in whatever form and by whatever name called, for distribution of prizes by lot or chance to those persons participating in the chances of a prize by purchasing tickets’

The Supreme Court permits state governments to ban lottery in India because it is a form of gambling and it makes the poorer section of the society an addict and bankrupt. However this is not the case in lucky draws because the lucky draw scheme which is included in the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998 has to stay within the given parameters, and most lucky draws which are organized by the governments do not require a ticket purchase and the participants can directly come and try their luck, and thus this does not account to gambling.Online lucky draws require the payment of a small amount which is usually collected by companies like Mastercard or Rupay, or by other banks used for payment and hence the government on their side does not charge anything and offer prizes gratuitously. Therefore it is very clear that a lucky draw is very different from a lottery, and this would not fall under the category of gambling. So this answeres to the question if lottery legal in India.

Betting Is Legal In India Or Not Working

The Section 2(1)(r) Consumer Protection Act, 1986 also prohibits any kind of unfair trade practice which includes “conducting any lottery or contests whether skill or chance to promote the sale, use or supply of any goods or for the provision of any service.” The NITI Aayog has clarified this too as offering lucky draws to promote digital transactions does not include any service and the customer does not pay anything for getting the reward. These kinds of lucky draws usually include small cash back offers for payment by digital means.

And thus the lucky draw scheme stays out of the ambit of consumer protection laws as well as the Lottery Regulation Act.

Betting Is Legal In India Or Not

For any Other related matter, please Post Your Requirement anonymously and get free proposals OR find the Best Lawyers and book a free appointment directly.

Betting Is Legal In India Or Not Recognized