Govt asks media to stop showing ads on online betting
Recently the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked print, digital and electronic media to stay away from advertisements promoting online betting.
The ministry has said that advertisements for online betting are misleading in nature. In addition, these do not conform to the following laws/directives:
- THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT, 2019
- Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Network Rules,
- Advertisement norms under the norms of Norms of Journalistic Conduct – Press Council of India
Regulation of Online Gaming in India:
- Betting and gambling are mentioned in List-II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution.
- States have been given special powers to regulate them.
- Every state in India has expressly banned any form of gambling and betting except Goa, Sikkim and Daman.
- However, ‘online’ betting and gambling regulations fall under the ‘grey zone’.
- Sikkim is the first state to grant it legal status. Telangana is the first state to ban it.
- Recently, the central government has constituted a committee to regulate online gaming and bring its monitoring under a single ministry.
- The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has considered levying 28% GST on online gaming as a consideration. At present there is no tax on these. This results in loss to the government exchequer.
Related information:
The lottery run by the Government of India or the government of any state comes under the Union List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.
However, in March 2022 the Supreme Court ruled that a state legislature is empowered to tax lotteries operated by other states within its jurisdiction, as lotteries are part of the activity related to “gambling”.
Source – The Hindu
