PARELLEL INNINGS: INDIAN PREMIERE LEAGUE AND ILLEGAL BETTING WEBSITES

INTRODUCTION

Cricket has always been popular in India. When Indian Premiere League was started in 2008, it immediately created craze for millions of cricket fans worldwide. Indian Premiere League is a T-20 format tournament held annually. Numerous key foreign players also take part in this league. With the advent of Indian Premiere League, betting also got promoted immensely.

ricket matches have brought new platforms for illegitimate betting in sports that offer discounts, treasure hunts, and lucky draws to the fans. In its report titled ‘Peering into the Abyss: Mapping of Offshore Betting Industry in India’ Think Change Forum, an independent think tank analysing the betting sector in India states that the offshore betting sector rakes in around Rs 8,20,000 crore ($100 billion) annually from India and has been growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually from the COVID-19 period. Many of these are linked to criminal elements and are involved in fraud, which not only results in monetary losses to the users resulting in psychological problem but is also related to issues of national security as well as money laundering, tax evasion, and data theft.

Many people are pushed to squander their money and kill themselves because of online betting Prohibition of unregulated betting and those who change their domains often and are located in different areas to avoid close down can barely be overemphasized. The legalities of online betting games are in a rather unclear and thus the issue of fraud and exploitation becomes rife while the government consumer protection is questionable.

Harms to Consumers, Government, and Industry

These platforms not only lead users into financial hardships but also result in significant tax revenue losses for the government. According to a report by Think Change Forum, illegal betting apps during the 2023 World Cup have cost the exchequer an estimated Rs 2 lakh crore. This situation also harms legitimate online gaming companies that comply with all relevant laws, impacting them not only commercially but also damaging their reputation. The online gaming sector is crucial for India’s goal of becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2035, with projections indicating its annual revenue could double to $6 billion by 2028. Therefore, a sector with such potential needs robust regulatory frameworks and effective enforcement mechanisms to build trust between the government, industry, and consumers.

The present legislation used in the regulation of gambling is the Public Gambling Act of 1867, which is archaic and cannot be used to address the modern forms of gambling. From the Act, gambling and sports betting are prohibited but the Act distinguishes between games of chance and games of skills. There is a difference between games that are categorically prohibited and labelled ‘illegal’; games of skill are not prohibited as they entail practice and presence of mind as opposed to games of          luck.

Legal   Precedents

In the case of Avinash Mehrotra v State of Rajasthan, the Supreme Court came to a conclusion that Dream 11, fantasy game is a game of skill where knowledge, judgment, and discretion are involved and not a gambling activity. They accepted it under freedom of trade.

In Dr. K. R Lakshmanan v State of Tamil Nadu the court tried to distinguish between games of chance and games of skill and defined the latter as games where the element of chance plays a minimal role and success depends upon the player’s skill, knowledge, experience, diligence and manual skills. In the view of the court, games of chance mainly depend on the element of luck. Hence, depending on which element prevails, chance or skill, that is the true character of a game.



 State of Andhra Pradesh v K. Satyanarayana & Ors: The court agreed with the fact that games involve some element of chance and some element of skills. For instance, the court was of the view that Rummy was a game of skill because of the requirement of memorization and formulation of strategies unlike simple games of chance such as the ‘three card game’.

Measures:

Due to the increasing incidences of illegitimate online betting, the government has employed the following major steps. Meity has taken strict measures against 174 out of 200 such betting apps. The CCPA in March 2024 came out with an advisory stating that necessary action would be taken against celebrities and influencers advertising, promoting, and endorsing online betting and gambling. Also, new strict rules for the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) channel are being proposed to deal with such        platforms.

However, this seems not to be the case since there is a continued existence of such platforms. Prescribing a single point registration might go a long way in eradicating such sites and providing the consumers with a safer gambling environment in the virtual gaming market. This would involve, for instance, PAN/TAN/CIN of the company, registration details of the company, details of the promoters, proof of company’s Indian incorporation and proof of tax paid.

This would ensure that only legal online gaming intermediaries with proper registration from India would be allowed to operate and hence reduce cases of operation of online gaming intermediaries that are not legal within the country. This would enable the government and enforcement authorities to run preliminary search against the database to validate compliance which would in turn guide further prosecutorial or investigative activities.

For instance, this system would help the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to better prevent and control the advertisements of Illegal Betting on the Internet. It would also help MeitY in terms of preventing the illicit platforms and prevent the generation of the new URLs. From the consumer protection point of view, it would enable the Ministry of Home Affairs to effectively guard the users against fraudulent sites. In respect of tax revenue loss, it would enable the Finance Ministry to improve the compliance of taxes and fight tax avoidance. In addition, it would allow end-users to perform research and not gamble on the credibility of particular online resources.

Conclusion

Increase in the cases of illegitimate betting sites due to the craze of cricket and events such as IPL have provoked major financial, legal and social issues in India. They lead to monetary losses to the users, huge taxes losses to the government, and negative impacts on the proper online gaming businesses. The existing law is the Public Gambling Act of 1867, which is inadequate in dealing with the contemporary gambling vices hence the need for a strong legislation. Cases distinguish between games of chance and games of skill and it becomes evident why there is a need for the setting of proper guidelines. Thus, the measures against the illegal betting include app bans, the ban on endorsements and advisories, and the proposed UPI regulation. Even more, the introduction of a single point registration system for online gaming intermediaries may enhance legal compliance and consumer protection and guarantee tax receipts.