Dark reality of Online Gambling in India

Nowadays, we are seeing that Online Games like Rummy, Poker, and other betting games are getting popular in India. These Games are directly or indirectly adversely affecting the lives of the many as they are getting more consumed into gambling.

According to a recent survey, online betting games are becoming the most popular and attractive business idea for Youth. In the recent situation of Covid-19, many unemployed people are just bringing their minds into things like Casino, Poker, Rummy to make money and are getting addicted to such things ruining their life and money by investing in them.

Today people are more into shortcuts than hard laboured and intelligent work and are getting more indulged in Online Betting sites to make money. Many online games sites are organizing the games, with the legal age limit for this online game site being 18 years. But there is no such authorization to check for fake ids and age limits.

As we have heard, the game of rummy is a game of skill, but it is more sort of gambling and betting money through rummy and other games in the greed of getting more money. We don’t see any legal industry that can grow at this pace in the world as online real money betting games like Poker, Rummy, and Teen Patti are growing; this clearly indicates that the people of India are turning more and more addicted to it.

Many people playing this game commit suicide due to loss of money or getting into debt as people are borrowing money in greed to earn more and lose what they have to spend for themselves in this pandemic.

Another main reason people are turning towards such activities is that many celebrities, which are the actual role models or idols of the people, are promoting these online betting sites to play with them and indirectly insisting people to invest their money as this thing is profitable for them. Still, the reality is dark on the other side.

According to the recent survey of these online gaming sites:- An expert said that there are Rs 2200 crore online betting and is Growing at the huge margin of 30% annually and would touch Rs12,000 crore by 2023.

By checking the latest report, it clearly shows how much money the people are wasting in the greed of getting more. As such online games are also leading to the criminal activities which we are reading in the daily newspapers or articles.

After losing the money, people are on the way to commit crimes like robbery, kidnapping, and murder to carry on with this addiction of online gaming betting to make more money, creating worry among the citizens. A Recent case came in light where a boy committed suicide because he had stolen 40K from his mother’s account due to online gambling. Any such cases have come in light in the recent months.

Many of the student unions and organizations are staging a protest and demanding from the Government of India to impose the ban or restrict the activities of these sites under them so that these actions taken by the government can prevent youngsters of the country from these online gambling and bettings social media apps.

As we have also heard, The Government of Some states is also keeping a regular check on the activities of the online gaming sites and demanding a ban on online gaming and betting sites as it is spoiling the youth and the future of the country. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has recently banned many apps that were not following the rules and many of which were these gambling apps.

Studies have shown that these applications are allegedly collecting personal data from the users and this can be of major concern. Some people will never realise this until it’s too late.

There is, obviously, not a single ideal answer to be seen. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), gaming operators in Europe need to clarify what data they gather and how they use it. But more than the government, people need to be aware of what’s happening around them and maybe choose a hardwork way rather than these shortcuts.