{"id":308123,"date":"2025-10-16T13:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308123\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:19:10","slug":"sc-to-hear-pil-seeking-nationwide-ban-on-online-gambling-masquerading-as-e-sports-social-games-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308123\/","title":{"rendered":"SC to hear PIL seeking nationwide ban on online gambling masquerading as E-sports, social games on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on 17 October a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Centre to prohibit online gambling and betting platforms that allegedly operate under the guise of social and e-sports games.<\/p>\n

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai<\/a> and Justice K Vinod Chandran took note of the submissions of lawyer Virag Gupta, appearing for petitioner \u2013 Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC) \u2013 on Thursday and agreed to hear the PIL on October 17.<\/p>\n

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The plea has sought a direction to Union Ministries of Electronics and Information Technology, Information and Broadcasting<\/a>, Finance and Youth Affairs and Sports \u201cto do a harmonious interpretation of provisions of Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and laws made by State Legislatures, to prohibit online gambling and betting games operating in the guise of social and e-sports games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition, filed on 13 October through advocates Virag Gupta and Rupali Panwar, names six respondents, including four union ministries and the two leading app store operators, Apple Inc. and Google India Pvt. Ltd.<\/p>\n

The CASC, represented by former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh, and Shourya Tiwari, have urged the top court to direct the government to clamp down on the proliferation of betting and gambling applications, which they claim are inflicting widespread social and economic harm across the country.<\/p>\n

Betting and gambling are regarded as unlawful activities in the majority of states in India. Several cases are contested in high courts wherein affidavits were filed by the government and gaming platforms<\/a>. Upon analysing the same it is reported that more than 65 crore persons are playing such games creating annual business of more than \u20b91.8 lac crores for these platforms in India.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAround half of the Indian population is involved in playing online games which is adversely impacting society, economy and national security. Devastating impact of online betting and gambling are endorsed in the objectives of newly passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025. As per the IT Minister\u2019s speech in Parliament, the Bill was introduced to ensure the welfare of society and to prevent the serious evil that is creeping into society,\u201d the PIL said.<\/p>\n

The plea said this unchecked expansion of online gaming has created what they describe as a \u201cnational crisis,\u201d affecting \u201chalf of India\u2019s population\u201d and leading to financial ruin, mental health issues, and even suicides. The plea has sought a nationwide prohibition on online gambling and betting platforms operating as esports or social games.<\/p>\n

In one of the prayers, it has sought blocking orders under Section 69A of the IT Act against all unlawful betting sites and apps.<\/p>\n

The plea has sought directions to the RBI, NPCI, and UPI platforms to disallow any monetary transactions involving unregistered gaming applications.<\/p>\n

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It has sought tax recovery and an investigation into offshore gaming companies through Interpol, the CBI, and the ED, estimated to owe over \u20b92 lakh crore in unpaid taxes.<\/p>\n

The PIL has also sought directions for the protection of data of minors already collected by online gaming companies.<\/p>\n

Around half of the Indian population is involved in playing online games which is adversely impacting society, economy and national security.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop cricketers and film stars are endorsing such unlawful games leading to cyber frauds, addiction, mental health disorder and suicides. As per Union IT Minister, \u2018The fraud and cheating algorithms are such that it’s impossible to tell who is playing with whom\u2026 algorithms are opaque algorithms\u2026defeat is certain money laundering is taking place\u2026\u2019,\u201d the PIL said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on 17 October a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[155951,155952,155944,155946,210,1567,517,9663,86469,155948,155945,155947,278,155949,67,132,155950,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-308123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-chief-justice-b-r-gavai","9":"tag-chief-justice-b-r-gavai-il","10":"tag-e-sports","11":"tag-gambling-ban","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-india","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-online-gambling","16":"tag-online-gaming","17":"tag-promotion-and-regulation-of-online-gaming-act","18":"tag-public-interest-litigation","19":"tag-social-games","20":"tag-supreme-court","21":"tag-supremecourt-pil","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-up-police-dgp","25":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115384049072739751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}