Justice (retd.) Vikramjit Sen, a former Supreme Court Judge and a member of the All India Gaming Federation Advisory Panel, has likened the auctions of cricketers to gambling. Speaking at the launch of a book, Online Gaming in India: Technology, Policy & Challenges, in the Capital on Tuesday, he also found it strange that online gaming is frowned upon while cricketers’ auctions are permissible.
“If you have seen any of these auctions, it is just a gamble really. You don’t know how they are going to play at the end if it. It is just some information, some statistics which are given to you, or you are aware of, and you make these astronomical bids. If that is not gambling, what is it? That is permissible but when you talk of some other activity, it is frowned upon,” he said.
He was referring to the absence of legislation for online gaming, includes Fantasy Sports, Online Poker, Rummy, Edu based games, Quizzing, Casual Gaming, e-games and virtual gaming. And he suggested that it was perhaps due to the association of gaming with gambling which has a negative connotation.
Justice (retd.) Sen, who ran Delhi & District Cricket Association as Administrator for nearly a year and a half from February 2016, called it the most harrowing experience he has ever had. “There is very little law in Sport,” he said. “But they provide such leadership along with entertainment that we have to take this particular part of society seriously.”
He said the online gaming industry in India has grown around 23 per cent from last year and is now worth $3 Billion, with 500-plus actively involved companies and 500 million gamers. He wondered why Government was not doing anything (about legislating) and said the industry was saved by the Supreme Court and High Courts
Justice (retd) Sanjib Banerjee, former Chief Justice of the Madras and Meghalaya High Courts, recalled that he (and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy) had to place Constitutional Sense ahead of a sense of morality when adjudicating a case on online gaming and delivering a landmark judgement in 2021.
A look at the list of chapters suggests that the book offers a range of perspectives on gaming technology and policymaking, including the Indian experience in intervening and streamlining the online gaming industry. A Chapman & Hall book, it has been edited by Dr. Lovely Dasgupta and Dr. Shameek Sen and is published by CRC Press of the Taylor & Francis Group.
