Should betting and gambling be permitted in India? The country’s Law Commission this week opened a 30-day debate on the subject, inviting comments from the general public. It follows a major betting and spot-fixing scandal in the country’s principal cricket competition in 2013.
The commission, which is already charged with examining the legalisation of betting, has added gambling to its remit, saying: “The commission discerned that gambling is also a subject that is very closely associated with betting. While considering the legalisation of betting, leaving aside gambling may render the whole exercise futile.”
The commission chairman, Justice B. S. Chauhan, said: “Various media reports time and again point out that betting and gambling, though not legal in India, is practised across the country clandestinely.”
He said that strict rules against the practice had not acted as a deterrent. “Online gambling and betting is another area that has become very difficult to curb. It is understood that a lot of money is involved in illegal gambling business, creating almost a parallel economy, converting legally earned money into black money that is drained to gambling operators in other countries online,” said the commission.
