The Karnataka legislative assembly's lower house on September 21 evening approved a bill banning all betting and gambling by passing the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which MediaNama obtained and summarised last week. The law drew rebukes from industry players and their associations, and legal experts cast doubt on whether the law would hold up in court. The bill essentially outlaws any sort of online gambling, including the kind where players' skills can decide the outcome. This is in opposition to games of luck like lotteries. The bill will now have to pass the upper house of Karnataka's bicameral legislature before becoming law. Gambling is a state subject in the Indian constitution, meaning every state has its own law to govern betting and gambling activities. But over the decades, the judiciary has curtailed states' ability to outright prohibit betting and gambling when they require some element of skill by players. The most recent example of this was the Madras High Court overturning the Tamil Nadu gambling ban that was practically identical to the Karnataka one, a ruling that rested on several such precedents. How the industry is reacting The Internet and Mobile Association of India said that the law was "non-progressive," adding that "the bill introduced in the assembly appears to have been drafted without considering the various legal and constitutional positions by including a wide definition of 'gaming' in amendments against various Supreme Court and High Court judgments." The industry association added, "IAMAI is of the view that the bill…
