By Arsh Singh, 4th Year, Army Institute of Law, Punjabi University
Introduction
Even though gambling is sometimes referred to as the ‘colonizer’s curse’, nothing could be further from the truth. We tend to forget that in our colorful and vivid history spanning more than 3000 years, the acts of betting and gambling have been with us from pretty much the beginning. In fact, mentions of a primary form of gambling that involves dices can be found in the Ramayana, which many Indians believe, dates back to 7200BC. Concrete evidence of its widespread use can also be seen in Buddhist texts around 300 B.C. So, it is safe to say that we’ve been gambling since before the British came, or even existed as a country! Even modern gambling has been around for decades now and although most versions of it are illegal in the nation, many people continue to indulge in it and make careers out of it. The main advantage of gambling is that it provides employment to the poor and the marginalized communities; the lottery system alone employs about 5 million people, who are working on a part time basis. Casinos also generate increased employment as they provide hospitality services such as food, lodging, etc[1]. The looming and ever increasing problems attached with gambling can, of course, not be ignored, it exponentially increases crime rate; even though it gives a sense of cash flow amongst the participants, most of the money usually flows from the poor to the rich, which in turn decreases the quality of life of a society and can even put a significant burden on the state; not to mention that most of the money made through gambling contributes to the black money market which is a Pandora’s box in itself.
Definition
Majority of the sanction on gambling is found in The Public Gambling Act, 1867, which declared all gambling and betting acts illegal except in games where skill is needed. The case of Charnes v. City Opera House[2]further expanded on the definition:
“gambling” means risking any money, credit, deposit, or other thing of value for gain contingent in whole or in part upon lot, chance, the operation of a gambling device, or the happening or outcome of an event, including a sporting event, over which the person taking the risk has no control.
Hence the definition can be broken down in a manner which gives us the essentials to prove the same:
1. Risking money for gain.
2. This is contingent in whole or part upon chance.
3. Or such an event over which the person risking has no control.
Types and Overview
In India, gambling can be seen in 4 major types
1) HorseRacing
Pitting animals against each other and betting money on them was a prominent example of betting in ancient India and had been carried forward, despite the nation seeing significant cultural changes over the years and although most of it is illegal now, the non-violent versions of the same are still considered legal. It is important to note here that this was not the case since independence, but the Supreme Court in the case of Dr K.R Lakshmana v. State of Tamil Nadu[3] held that horse racing does not come under the ambit of gambling as it is not a game of pure chance and there are various factors that are at play such as adequate training, jockey of the horse, food given and health of the horse and people involved in betting need to take all of these things into consideration. Horse racing is regulated by each individual state and this regulation generates huge amount of revenue annually.
2) Underground Lottery
In this system, the consumer buys a lottery ticket, which provides him with a specific set of numbers and that person is announced as the winner of the lottery if his number matches with that of the result number declared. This gambling system finds most of its demographics in common men. Buying a lottery ticket is not as expensive or cumbersome as betting on a horse, and this practice has been renowned in rural as well as urban areas. The same is propagated further via mainstream Bollywood movies like Fukrey(2013), which has an impact on the masses. The lotteries are regulated by the government under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998; the legalization of lottery has financially benefitted the government; it is estimated that the lottery market generates more than Rs. 500 billion and this is still an underestimate, as half of the lottery practices are carried forward in an illegal manner, which are not included in the revenue turnover.
3) Sports Gambling
This form of gambling has seen a boom in the last 10-15 years and every time it is observed and suppressed, it comes back in an even larger form. Most of the popularity of sports gambling can be attributed to the love for cricket in the nation; as a result, cricket betting happens to be the biggest area of gambling in sports. Cricket gambling has become very common in urban areas; customers give a call to the bookie so as to put a bet on a certain team or on a certain player, and after the match is over they exchange money and the bookie destroys all records and accounts of the said transaction. As cricket betting is illegal in India, many bookies place these bets while sitting in moving cars to make it difficult to trace mobile signals and distract the police. The impact of this gambling has been so adverse, that it spawned other unlawful activities like match-fixing, betting on hockey, basketball, badminton and wrestling. With the advent of the Indian Premier League, match-fixing and gambling had become such huge problems, that eventually the Supreme Court had to step in to take corrective measures.
4) Casino Gambling
The Public Gambling Act,1867 prohibits running or being in-charge of a public gaming house or a casino[4]. However, the law allows states to make specific laws to regulate casinos in their state territories; currently, 2 states and 1 UT allow for gambling, these being Daman and Diu, Goa and Sikkim. Understandably, the places that allow casinos have quite a few of them; Goa alone has 10 casinos, with 4 of them being floating casinos, which add up to the luster of the place and help in boosting tourism as well. Although most decisions with regard to casinos are made by the state government, there are a few exceptions to this scenario; for example, in 2015, the government set a few rules which put a restriction on the local citizens to visit casinos and also increased the minimum age to 21 for playing games in a casino. Online casinos have also seen a surge with the increase in internet accessibility; sites like Betway casino, royal panda and jeet play see huge amounts of traffic every day. Unlike standard casinos, online casino gambling is not prohibited by any law and there are very few states that have banned online casinos.
Recent Judicial Trend and Dream 11
The case of Shri Varun Gumber v. UT of Chandigarh &Ors[5] lays down that Dream 11 does not fall under the category of gambling. The Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that the fantasy sport is predominantly skill-based. The courts while relying on the aforementioned Lakshmanan case, decided that fantasy sports like dream 11 also required the same level of considerable skill, judgment and discretion much like horse races and hence, the outcome was determined by these factors, and not pure luck or chance. The court also held that Dream 11 was conducting a business activity protected under Article 19(1)(g) of the constitution.
The petitioner in the case ofBimalendu De v. Union of India &Ors.[6] challenged the legality of the show KBC and alleged that this game constitutes gambling, the court after reviewing found that KBC undergoes extensive general procedure and although the questions may be generated randomly, ultimately it comes down upon the person to change the outcome of the game and held that the game did not fall under the definition of “prize money”.
Conclusion
Despite the diverse history of gambling, the future sure seems uncertain with the increasing corporate influence and the government for the most part trying to cut it down. The question of gambling boils down to one of the most basic, yet most compelling arguments, that is what we prefer more, money or morals! It seems redundant to reduce such a Goliath issue to a simple question, but this journey of a thousand miles starts with this first step.
References
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