PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Saturday said that the State government must appeal in the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s order setting aside the ban on online gambling recently, reasoning that online rummy and poker are skill-based games.
In a statement, Dr. Anbumani claimed that online rummy companies have started ‘preying’ on the people just 24 hours after the court’s order posting advertisements online.
“The Court has said that the State government’s law banning online gambling is valid, but it doesn’t apply to online rummy games. The online rummy companies are playing advertisements online stating that the prize money in the online rummy game is ₹ 1 crore and 1 kilogram of gold. The companies are also giving special welcome bonuses. It is sad that the State government hasn’t acted swiftly to curb these activities,” he said.
Dr. Anbumani said that hundreds of persons in Tamil Nadu who played online rummy have died by suicide, beset with heavy debts.
“ The State government should take the initiative to safeguard innocent people from these companies. It should have started the process of appealing against the High Court’s order in the Supreme Court. At the very least, the State Government should have announced that it would appeal against the order. But, the Law Minister S. Regupathy has said the State will appeal against the order if the need arises. What does this mean?” he asked.
