The Union government was only interested in the revenue online games could generate through the GST and was not considering the loss of lives because of the online games, Tamil Nadu’s Law Minister S. Regupathy said in Chennai on Thursday, July 20, 2023.
During an interaction with the reporters, Mr. Regupathy said the government has to explain its stand to the people without getting into the details of the case being heard in the court against the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling Act, 2022.
Recalling that the judgment of the Madras High Court, which struck down the Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, that nothing would prevent an appropriate legislation by the State government, the Minister said that State government had enacted the fresh legislation availing its authority provided in the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
The Minister also pointed out that the Union government had only notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 to regulate online games but not an Act like the Tamil Nadu government.
Mr. Regupathy recalled the cases in which 42 people ended their lives in connection with online games in Tamil Nadu and contended that the Union government was more interested in the revenue the online games could generate than the lives of the people. There was a difference between online games and offline when it came to game of skill and underlined the role of the programmer in the former.
Replying to a query on his letters to Governor R.N. Ravi seeking a sanction to investigate four former AIADMK Ministers, the Minister said there has been no development since his last letter.
