Illegal to launch such a website?

25 views and no replies... common guys... anybody......

You cant launch website...there are no specific laws in India dealing with Internet gambling, online lottery and betting, however these activities are considered illegal, based upon the current government position on gambling in general. Gambling per se is an offence since it does not involve skill and has been explicitly prohibited under the Public Gambling Act of 1867.

The Public Gambling Act under Section (3) of lays down "Penalty for owning or keeping, or having charge of a gaming-house". According to this section if the owner or occupier, or any other person having the use or charge, care or management of any house, opens, keeps or uses the same as a 'common gaming-house' and knowingly or willfully permits the same to be occupied, used or kept by any other person as a 'common gaming-house' shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two-hundred rupees, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three months, as defined in the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

This section further lays down that whoever, advances or furnishes money for the purpose of gambling with persons frequenting such 'gaming-house' or in any manner assists in conducting, the business of such 'common gaming-house', in keeping it opened, occupied, used or kept for the purpose of being used as a 'common gaming-house' shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two-hundred rupees, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three months.

Thus the Public Gambling Act, makes gambling illegal i.e. when it's made a business to earn a profit or a commission

IT Act has extra territorial jurisdiction with regard to computer related offence committed in India. Besides personal jurisdiction has also been exercised in several international cases involving the internet and the court asserted personal jurisdiction based on the nature of the 'gambling operations' web sited coupled with the intent to solicit business with residents of the other states as in US caseMissouri ex rel. Nixon v. Interactive Gaming & Communications Corp and also in In State of Minnesota v. Granite Gate Resorts, Inc.."

Although there are no laws that bar internet gambling specifically, the official government stance is that the existing laws governing gambling offline is sufficient enough to curb Internet gambling as well.

thanks for your reply...

I can't understand why it could be illegal conseidering that goa casinos are legally established(as are the horse racing sites in Kolkata/Hederabad). If it is legal to open these sites, it should not be illegal to discuss about them on Internet. I respect your argument and understand that you are in a btter position to judge here. If you can give your professional opinion on this too, I will be much grateful.

the sites you are talking about are hosted and registered with the servers of the country where gambling is not illegal...hence it is out of reach of Indian Laws..

No Dear i am not talking about land based casinos. I am talking about casinos that Govt of India has provided license for.

I quote the following links from wikipedia:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalaxmi_Racecourse

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Western_India_Turf_Club

Also this line I found in wikipedia: "Only two states allow casino gambling, Goa and Sikkim. There is one casino in Sikkim and 12 in Goa, of which seven are land based and five are floating casinos that operate on the Mandovi River."

My website won't conduct any gambling, no financial transactions (betting etc) will take place. It will only provide information and a chatting facility for readers of the website.

Again, I appreciate your kind effort and seek your legal advide. Please help.

 

Originally posted by :Aditya
"	No Dear i am not talking about land based casinos. I am talking about casinos that Govt of India has provided license for. I quote the following links from wikipedia: 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalaxmi_Racecourse 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Western_India_Turf_Club Also this line I found in wikipedia: "Only two states allow casino gambling, Goa and Sikkim. There is one casino in Sikkim and 12 in Goa, of which seven are land based and five are floating casinos that operate on the Mandovi River." My website won't conduct any gambling, no financial transactions (betting etc) will take place. It will only provide information and a chatting facility for readers of the website. Again, I appreciate your kind effort and seek your legal advide. Please help.	"

 Pleas read the first line as "No Dear i am talking about land based casinos."  Sorry for the mistake.

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. AS PER THE ACTIVITIES MENTIONED BY YOU, TO BE DONE ON YOUR WEBSITE, THEY DO NOT FALL UNDER MEANING OF GAMBLING. THEY ARE MERELY DISCUSSING IDEAS, STRATEGIES, TOURNAMENTS ETC. WITHOUT ANY MONEY OR MATERIAL VALUE AT STAKE. IN MY OPINION THEY WILL BE ENGAGING IN AN INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION OF MATHEMATICS INVOLVED IN "GAMES OF CHANCE". GAMES OF CHANCE DOES NOT MEAN GAMBLING, MANY "GAMES OF CHANCE" ARE BEING SOLD LEGALLY LIKE VIDEO GAMES ETC. AND EVEN CHILDREN PLAY SUCH GAMES IN SCHOOLS. IF THE "GAMES OF CHANCE" INVOLVES PUTTING MONEY OR MATERIAL VALUE AT STAKE, THEN THEY BECOME GAMBLING.

Thanks for your reply "Democratic Indian", I don't know anything about law and so was fearing that may be I could get into trouble by "promoting an illegal activity". But I guess if the government is already allowing such Gambling (in limited cities though), there should be no problem in a website for the same.

To be on a safer side to avoid any nuisance of illegal or unconstitutional action by overzealous bureaucrats or government officials, who think themselves to be the self appointed moral guardians of our country you can also also do the following steps: 1) When you register the domain name for your website, you have the option to keep your name/name of your company, address etc. to be kept private for your privacy by the registrar of website, so that it does not show up in public WHOIS database. 2) Host the website on the server in a country where such websites are perfectly legal. This can be ascertained from the web hosting company before you host your website. 3) Put a legal disclaimer and warning making the users on your website to agree to "Terms and conditions" before they do anything on your website like that your website is strictly for intellectual discussion of the science and mathematics of the games of chance etc. and nothing more etc., something like that like that is put up by various adult websites so that the burden to justify the sharing of the content/service etc. on your website does not fall on you.

If I can go to casino sites and play online there, then why can't I discuss it somewhere else?
I think that with such a resource there should be no problems. I also look at vegas hero casino review and choose according to the availability of bonuses and secure payment and withdrawal systems. All this works great in India.

Some strange restrictions completely agree with you. But to choose a game site reviews I do not like much, more trust the real advice from their comrades, who advised me to play at andarbahar24.in And you know, it was really good gambling establishment, which is not boring.