COIMBATORE: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Thursday that the state government will ban online rummy and introduce legal changes to arrest its organizers and players. “We have received many complaints against online rummy.
In the interest of the public, the government has decided to ban all online games that involve gambling, ” he told reporters in Coimbatore, where he came to review Covid-19 management work and inaugurate infrastructure projects in Nilgiris districts. and Tirupur. The decision comes amid a series of suicides across the state by victims who go into debt due to online gambling.
About a dozen died by suicide due to online gambling debts
In Coimbatore, two men, aged 28 and 32, committed suicide in two days this week, while statewide about a dozen have committed suicide so far.
On Tuesday, the state government had informed the Madurai court of the Madras high court, where a PIL seeking the online rummy ban was being heard, that it planned to regulate online gambling. On behalf of the government, Additional Advocate General M Sricharan Rangarajan sought time to present a clear plan to regulate online gambling.
The court had noted that states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Nagaland had banned or regulated online games related to gambling and betting. The judge also ordered to notify actors Prakash Raj, Tamannah and cricketer Virat Kohli, among others, that they had endorsed the games.
Subsequently, on Wednesday, DMK chairman MK Stalin had alleged that the state government was unnecessarily delaying the ban on online gambling. He expressed shock at the response of the state government that was looking for time to decide on the issue and demanded an immediate ban.
Hours before the CM’s announcement, state law minister C Ve Shanmugam said the state was considering a ban and criticized Stalin for pointing an accusing finger at the government. “It was the Amma government that banned the lottery after it was discovered that several families were suffering due to their addiction,” he said. “We have informed the court about the government’s decision,” EPS said.
PMK leader S Ramadoss has welcomed the government’s decision to ban online rummy.
On the reports of actor Vijay’s political downfall, Palaniswami said that every individual has the right to enter politics and so does actor Vijay. In a query about the denial of permission to Vel Yatra from BJP, EPS said that there is a regulation on public meetings due to Covid, according to which the permission was denied.
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