Another PIL filed against online poker in Delhi HC
After social activist Avinash Mehrotra’s PIL to ban , another individual, Deepati Bhagat has filed a similar petition in the Delhi High Court seeking a complete ban on poker and similar card games, pl🌺ayed online and offline.
According to , Bhagat’s petition was heard by a division bench of the Delhi High Court, compr🐓ising of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar, who iss🍃ued notices to the Delhi government and Union Finance Ministry.
The bench also ordered that the matter be tagged with the ✱Avinܫash Mehrotra PIL and be listed for hearing on 28th November.
Last week, the bench had apparently declined ✅to entertain the same ple♔a by the petitioner as she had been unable to explain what a poker game was.
Subs𓃲equently, the petitoner, Bhagat, moved the plea afresh and explained how the card game is play🥃ed. She has contended that as the player has no control over the kind of cards being dealt to him or her, poker was a game of chance and not skill and, therefore, playing it for high stakes or profit amounts to gambling and is illegal. Bhagat has also sought cancellation of the licences, if any, issued to any company for playing poker or similar card games.
The PIL has also sought a ban on🍷 advertising of such games. The petition has claimed that thousands of families face monetary crisis due to gambling activities of a family member.
In May 2019, social activist Avinash Mehrotra🍸 the Delhi High Court contending thaꦑt several online gaming and betting websites are encouraging the country’s working population to part with their hard earned money on games of chance such as poker, teenpatti, sports betting, election betting etc.
He sought blocking of offsh🌞ore online betting websites such as Betrally, Bet365 and Betway as well as domestic Indian poker websites such as Adda52 and PokerStars.in as well as asked for a probe against the websites for tax evasion and money-launderi🎉ng.
The court had declined to gr🔯ant interim relief to Mehrotra and had asked the central government and RBI to file their responses. The court had also kept an intervention petition filed by All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) on hold and and kept the matter pending until the next hearing o꧋n 28th November, 2019.
