Virat Kohli gets legal notice for promoting online gambling, but is it valid?

In response to a case filed by advocate Mohammad Rizvi, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court has served a legal notice to the Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, and former Indian captain and president of the BCCI India Saurav Ganguly. The case against them states abetment to online gambling.

Rizvi denounced the idea of celebrities advertising online gambling in India. Saurav Ganguly promotes My11Circle, whereas Kohli is the ambassador of Mobile Premier League (MPL) which is why they were sent notices. Other celebrities including South Indian film stars Prakash Raj, Tammana Bhatia, Rana Daggubati and Sudip Khan also come under this list. The court has demanded them to respond by November 19th.

Online betting: a background

Online betting has been a part of India's history since time immemorial. Tracing back, it leads us to the era of Mahabharat that was nothing but a consequence of gambling. Fast-forwarding to 1867, the Public Gambling Act was formed which banned gambling for the first time. It was then amended and now it prohibits betting on all games of chance except lotteries and games of skill; for example, horse race betting is legal as winning or losing can be predicted based on the health and skills of the horse.

Also, the laws on gambling are much of any state’s individual matters. This means that, while betting may be an offence in one state, it may be completely acceptable in another. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab etc have adopted the Public Gambling Act of 1867, whereas other states have their own regulations.

Laws for online betting

What’s important here is that all these laws – state’s as well as central – were enacted when the term online or virtual barely existed. Therefore, all states, excluding Nagaland and Sikkim, have absolutely no barriers to online betting. Sikkim and Nagaland are the only states that have enforced laws on online gaming.

Hence, while gambling is illegal in India, there does not exist a law that can prove that ‘online gambling’ is unlawful. This, therefore, gives companies an edge to promote gambling apps.

Another important thing to note is that all the betting apps like Dream11, MPL, Paytm First Games etc, are unavailable on Google Play Store and Apple App store, which are the default app download destinations. Just last month, Google removed Paytm from Play Store, citing the payments app promotes gambling.

This again leaves an ambiguity among people whether or not is virtual gaming an offence in India. It also raises questions if these celebrities were deserving of the legal notice that they have been served.

Social issues associated

The idea of gambling has several social issues associated with it, suicide being the most prominent one. And the case on these celebrities is mainly because of these social issues.

Mohammad Rizvi’s complaint was the result of the anger that kept on piling up because of the increasing number of suicide cases, which were attempted because of problematic gambling. Another advocate who filed a complaint in August claimed that online betting violates Article 21 of the Indian constitution as it infringes right to life.

A case...

A 28-year-old Chennai man, Dinesh, killed himself on September 14 after losing about Rs 8 lakh in online gambling. A 20-year-old Chennai college student, Nithish Kumar, killed himself in July end after he lost all his savings on a gambling app. A 24-year-old youngster, Madhukar in Mancherial, Telangana, committed suicide in the second week of July after he lost Rs 15 lakh to the fraudsters in an online gambling game. In the same week, a 24-year-old man, Doddi Venkata Aravind in Kotturu village in Visakhapatnam district allegedly killed himself after losing money in online gambling.

These types of depressing news keep on increasing on a daily basis. And what’s even more horrifying is that majority of the deaths were of youngsters, aged between 19-30. It is pretty clear that young people idolise celebrities and tend to subconsciously believe in what their idols endorse on television. This gets further amplified by the desire of earning money as most of the gambling apps claim rewards to be in crores. It seems an easy way of earning money without doing much of physical labour.

Who to blame?

The answer to this question is diversified. A single entity or a celebrity cannot be blamed for the entire mishappenings. It all starts with the lack of correct laws. Had there been strict laws that prohibit or at the very least, limit the scope of online gambling, there would not be companies developing such apps. Companies are taking advantage of the loophole in the system to lure users and to increase their brand value, revenues etc.

Same goes with the celebrities. They are getting paid for such advertisements and blaming them solely is not the answer to current problems. Not endorsing online gambling apps can be considered as their moral responsibility but not the legal one. Apart from this, companies like Dream11 and MPL are the sponsors of IPL and teams, which makes it even more difficult for celebs to refute to endorsing offers. Therefore, it can be said that the case is morally correct but on viewing it as per constitutional perspective, not much can be said on its validity.

The author of the article is Mansi Mishra, Cybermedia.