In Sikkim, India the All Kerala Online Lottery Dealers Association has failed to successfully do away with a ban on internet lottery activity as the Supreme Court rejected its appeal this week.
“If online or internet lottery is to be prohibited by a State then that online lottery or internet lottery of all States, including that State, also has to be prohibited. Viewed from this angle, we are of the considered opinion that State of Kerala was well within its rights to prohibit the sale of online or Internet lotteries in its State and there is no fault in it,” Justice Agarwal, author of the verdict, wrote.
The panel of judges determined that the lotteries involved gambling deeming it a “pestilence more harmful than the common forms of gambling”.
“Experience has shown that the common forms of gambling are comparatively innocuous when placed in contrast with widespread pestilence of lotteries. The former are confined to a few persons and places, but the latter infests the whole community; it enters every dwelling; it reaches every class; it preys upon the hard earnings of the poor; it plunders the ignorant and the simple,” according to the judgement.
The Kerala state government put a ban on all lotteries in January 2005 however altered the law to ban online participation only.
“If online or internet lottery is to be prohibited by a State then that online lottery or internet lottery of all States, including that State, also has to be prohibited. Viewed from this angle, we are of the considered opinion that State of Kerala was well within its rights to prohibit the sale of online or Internet lotteries in its State and there is no fault in it,” Justice Agarwal, author of the verdict, wrote.
The panel of judges determined that the lotteries involved gambling deeming it a “pestilence more harmful than the common forms of gambling”.
“Experience has shown that the common forms of gambling are comparatively innocuous when placed in contrast with widespread pestilence of lotteries. The former are confined to a few persons and places, but the latter infests the whole community; it enters every dwelling; it reaches every class; it preys upon the hard earnings of the poor; it plunders the ignorant and the simple,” according to the judgement.
The Kerala state government put a ban on all lotteries in January 2005 however altered the law to ban online participation only.
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Comments (1)
merikat12
11/07/15, 07:11:59 AM
Considering that they hardly earn enough to put food on the table, I agree with the judgement. To gamble what little they have would increase the likelihood of more homelessness, more starvation and everything else that comes with being on and below the poverty line. Good call
