Bitcoin Forum

PREVIOUSLY there was a discussion regarding how the Karnataka Government ( a state in India ) might soon ban the Gambling and Betting ( online)..

On Tuesday The Karnataka Government Act, was submitted to be amended, it Bans all Online Gambling and  Online Betting. It does extend and would give the users a maximum imprisonment of 5 years and fine UpTo 1 lakh. But as previously stated in the news, the law does not include Horse Racing.



The law was submitted following the death of a guy due to gambling losses ( he committed suicide)

Source:  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deccanherald.com/amp/state/top-karnataka-stories/karnataka-notifies-law-banning-online-gambling-1037736.html (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deccanherald.com/amp/state/top-karnataka-stories/karnataka-notifies-law-banning-online-gambling-1037736.html)

- We might see stricter regulations from other states as well which even though might be challenged, but would take freedom out of people's hands when it comes to online Gambling and Betting.

Therefore be careful if you are Gambling in Karnataka now. Some sites do block the VPN as well, so you might be in a loss if you try to bet on things without legal consent from the government, let's hope the amends can be made in a positive sense, they might restrict but outright banning might cause people to use underhanded methods to engage in it, what do you think ?

What country is this from? Not familiar with the name of the government so I can't gauge whether it's going to be an influential legislation. If I just assume, I am thinking that it's not going to have a big effect in gambling industry let alone the crypto gambling platform.

Thanks for the news. In my opinion, if the government of Karnataka wants to really implement the whole gambling shutdown rule, nothing should be excluded. Because with one exception such as horse racing, gamblers will criticize the policy only to limit the middle class to gambling, while the rich can enjoy horse racing gambling. Even if they exclude again with Golf gambling.

Luckily I never gambled there.

Any kind of gambling activities are anyways banned in India, excluding horse racing. I am not sure why Karnataka had to pass a separate law to specifically ban online gambling. In a federal structure, Central has already created a law named "The public gambling act of 1867". So not sure why Karnataka created this law in a separate way! Makes no sense to have a law over an existing law that serves the same purpose at the end of the day! Just a waste of some beaurocratic manpower!

I don't know how this will be challenged yet, but the regulations are quite strict and will be very deterrent when the penalties are quite severe for those who violate the rules. Apart from online gambling, does the government also implement operations in every corner of the city and check all physical casinos? then penalize the owner?

The ban wouldn't change a thing. But its a pity the fellow who committed suicide must have wagered above how much that he/she could afford to lose. However if Karnataka government wants to issue a ban on online gambling nothing should be excluded if not people would hide under the umbrella of horse racing and still go about their gambling with VPNs or decide to have a separate device strictly for gambling

A state in india.

If this was really the reason of the ban, then they should educate people about the moderation in gambling instead of banning the whole industry or a have this kind of feature on the platform, same like in trading on some exchanges.

The government do benefits the tax and etc. from the industry it's such an unfortunate..

It's a state in India.
It's not much about influence on the industry it's more about people gambling legally and looking for new updates as well.

Plus the government there is bound to influence the governments around the whole state for example, Tamil Nadu.

This might be a but of a problem with people living there. But the government continues to support thins like house betting therefore it's all really twisted.

They need more gambling Addiction helplines, educate the kids more about everything and go for regulation rather than banning.

Let's see how it goes.

The death is painful, that is what could likely be a result of gambling addiction, it is not good at all to be addicted to anything, gambling should be fun and low amount should be only used for it, betting more than your low amount budgeted for it is the beginning of gambling addiction. I hope there will be more ways people can be orientated before they start to gamble to help them not to be addicted.

Horse racing is gambling, or if used as a form of gambling it should also be automatically prohibited in the state if the law is enforced.

That is just it, if gambling is banned in the state in India, people in the state will go for underground ways to gamble, but this will really lessen people gambling in the state.

I think it is clearly stated in the OP that it is a state in India.

It sounds like the owner of the horse racing tracks in that state must be well connected to the politicians who enacted this law. I don't see why horse racing should have been excluded for any other reason than corruption. It's a shame that such laws are administered and controlled at a state level because this creates all sorts of ruptures through the country (not only limited to gambling). The federal government should seriously look into why the politicians have decided that all but one major form of gambling is acceptable, because it seems very suspect. Why should online gambling be banned? Does it apply to people passing through the state and playing on their personal devices? It leaves open far too much to interpretation and abuse.

Like everything else about horse racing being excluded, does the government there have a good reason why horse racing could be excluded? because if in the end everyone ran to the horse races and gambled, then the existing heretical rules would only benefit the horse racing dealers. If that's the rule, then I agree that all types of gambling, whatever the name, must be stopped.

If thats the set-up then theres no much that citizens could do even if they would file up a petition or make out some rallies or something trying to fight for opposition then it would be just useless or senseless.
Government could impose out new rules as much as they like and exclude out things which they do seem that will really be beneficial for them and even you do saw that it wasnt really totally been blocked
and there are still some games which are allowed but it seems it isnt really for ordinary gamblers then what you can do?

^ That is definitely right and I have doubt that because also due to their religion, as far as I know, the country of Karnataka the largest religion there is Hinduism and followed by Islamic religion which is very against from gambling activity since then. They always threat gambling is a mortal sin so the reason for banning it. Probably the law that you are talking about is the beginning of banning gambling in their place.
Nevertheless, we cant ague them, this is what they believed and respect what they believe.

Any loss of life is always tragic but this is taking things too far, people die all the time in car crashes all over the world, does this means that we should ban cars? Obviously no, the car has brought many benefits to the world and even if people suffer accidents while driving no one is thinking about banning the technology as that would be a net loss for society in general.

Gambling is similar, some people suffer consequences for their actions while they gamble, however should we ban an industry that produces a lot of jobs, taxes and entertainment to the rest of the population just because a few cannot control themselves? I think the answer to that should be no as well, but it seems the politicians at that state in India do not agree with me.

Regulating online betting with such issue can be a bad thing for their state but can also be a good decision. Bad if most of the citizens in Karnataka uses gambling just as their part time stress relievers and have a balanced time in gambling and in their daily living, and it might spark a little issue from those gamblers against their state. Good if and only if there are people that tend to RELY on gambling and sees it to be their businesses, in which can really be a bad thing for their citizens both mentally and financially.

On the other hand, governments must take regulations onto considerations first before really banning a certain thing just because of an issue. They can help their citizens with such gambling addiction by offering free therapies to those that are addicted and they can also help their people more inline in money making from what they know gambling can do.

That is a very weak argument to pass a gambling ban law, excluding horse racing category from the ban. In the regulators' view a gambler who plays at a traditional casino is prone to commit suicide, but a gambler who bets on horse racing isn't. How do they explain the difference of effects horse racing and another kinds of gambling can cause to the players? After all they are all gambling games.

Does anyone at least question the flawed arguments presented by authorities in India?

So they are allowing other forms of gambling that are not online based?

Which kind of ban and double standards are these?
I don't think the ban might be effective in general. It's still so easy to circumvent such ban through online gambling platforms.

Maybe it's the no-gambling rule that exempts politicians from gambling legally. It is tantamount to useless making rules and laws regarding the prohibition of gambling in Karnataka. After all, they are mostly poor people who rely on income from the market, raising livestock and also gardening. The number of unemployed in Karnataka has increased dramatically since the pandemic. The reason is that the prohibition of gambling can make people pay more attention to their finances so they are not spent just on gambling. But what makes me suspicious is the horse race that passes and is on the excluded list.

For sure there are some exclusive request because knowing that horse racing is something a gambling game which does involved with lots of rich gamblers which means that government could really see some advantage
but we cant really remove the possibilities of such request of someone which is close into the top ranks.It is really a bit questionable that they had banned online gambling but
excluding horse racing then it isnt bad to make out some presumptions.

I think that this is going to be quite unenforceable.

Governments can ban whatever they want but at the end of the day if they can't prevent people from using VPNs etc. it's not going to work.

Seems like a knee-jerk reaction in my opinion. An overreaction to a tragedy that implicates the whole population & probably their tax revenue negatively.

The implementation of the law is due to the person committing suicide. And they neglect the possible benefits of the government because of this situation. What they can do in my opinion is educate their citizens about gambling or offer help to those that are into gambling. Because no matter what the restriction of the government is, people will still gamble. Now, they will resort to using VPN or underground network, in which, the government has not control of.

It is useless if only petitions are made, citizens will clearly not obey the rules that the government has just implemented even though they have to be involved in legal sanctions. Gamblers will do it secretly. Not much different from other countries where gambling is still in the illegal category but does not make gamblers stop there. There is always some naughty activity behind it.

The existence of an option is important for the stability of the government system, both in the application of sharp laws only for the lower middle class society while blunt for the nobles in India.

If only lawmakers would abandon their war on gambling and pursue causes with a higher potential to improve life and standard of living. If governments showed the same enthusiasm for decreasing oil prices, that they do for their war on gambling, the world would be a much different and better place.

While there are unfortunate and sad stories about gambling addiction. There are also a small segment of the population who are winning gamblers who profit and earn a living from gambling. Its irresponsible for the media to illustrate gambling as being an entirely negative thing. Gambling isn't so different from lotteries, prize giveaways, sweepstakes and other formats that people appear to use responsibly without much negative trend.

There are people who are consistently earning money who are becoming millionaires off fantasy sports. While gambling addiction is sad, I don't think wiping out the entire industry -- with many jobs people rely upon, is the answer.

Shouldn't they include all forms of gambling if they are talking about gambling all the same? If the situation is grave in the said state, then people coming from the said area should avoid trying to access gambling sites illegally. It's quite saddening that they have to react negatively (and in a somewhat exaggerated manner) due to the death of a single individual whom cannot control themselves from gambling. It affects a whole industry and the population which relies on the said industry.

Lawmakers in Karnataka should invest more in studying the effects of gambling on one's mind and not just preemptively create laws banning something they do not fully grasp, understand, or control.

I don't know why they have to do it when there are any other possible way that most people would most likely to participate in gambling and they should ban horse racing too instead of excluding it from the law since it's still a gambling game although, the regulation is all about online but it doesn't matter since people will still gonna play gambling games be it online or offline.

I think the government of India think of it as a quick countermeasure to online gambling but they didn't think beyond the line that almost other gambling would be a cause too for someone to lose and/or worst would take their life away.

well, the final say comes from the government, and maybe, owed to politics, they can't totally eradicate the gambling platforms related to horse racing, which definitely is also gambling. and when it comes to online gambling, even if the govt ban this method, people will always find a way how to get around this ban. the technology today will make sure you can bypass this kind of restriction. i guess in time, their govt will review this protocol and they may change their stance on this matter in the future.

If I am correct Gambling is banned in India and the same applies for betting. There are some states that allow lottery, not sure which states do. This kind of a ban does not make any sense as offline and online gambling falls under the ban. That is why there are so many incidents of illegal gambling and betting activities happening in India. I do not think such bans will affect a gamblers because if they want to gamble they will find a way.

When someone is much used to it, automatically he/she will find a way to use it. This is common with gambling and everything. Within India people need to be educated, rather than the education myself suggest to show the two sides of gambling on promotion. In every promotion for online gambling platforms they show just as winning and life change. This is unfair. At last a small note will be read, gambling has got financial risk so okay accordingly. When this changes automatically everything will change.

I'm afraid this will only pave way for illegal gambling operators. I hope I'm wrong, but a blanket ban over gambling, with the exception of horse racing, might only cause a lot of unintended consequences. Some of which could be the proliferation of illegal gambling, the failure to monitor and intervene gambling addiction cases, and so on.

I think what needs to be done is not a complete ban but a strict regulation. Of course, implementation is also very vital, which I think is poorly done, if at all, not just in Karnataka but the whole of India.

Because this kind of gambling involves the big names in the country where the bet is huge and the government enjoyed it especially when they get the TAX out of it. the more the bets. the more cash they get from it. The same for cockfighting in our country where is obviously not right because they both hurting the animals and gamble without any limitations. They banned all the gambling activities in the country except the one that pays tax regularly. As long you pay the tax, they won't touch you.

it's a bit of a test for one state only to see what effects would do if they ban online gambling in one area. this is big and a progressive state in India known for its commercial businesses. the pandemic has created more people to go online and do stuff in there as gambling and then addiction. the government is up to stop addiction.

suicide because of gambling loss, is the outcome of addiction and this is just one person. there are more out there that might kill themselves without calling hotlines so the government steps.

What I think is that India anyway, they want to be an important part of both the gambling and the BTC market, for me their strategy is basic and low, prohibit and then seek negotiation, which translates into implementing a "business model "It is well known that now the future and especially the money is going the way of BTC, gambling, casinos and NFT games. In this case, they are attacking casinos and gambling games because they know that many play and spend very large sums of money, they are taking advantage of an unfortunate event such as the suicide of the young man, but that is only the excuse to enter. The amendments can be reversed according to the interests of the governments, which, I think is what they are looking for, where obviously, they do not take into account the community of players of such an important country and specifically in Karnataka, I think it is a matter of months to reach a level of negotiation with the casinos and bookmakers, where obviously they will demand a high tax.

the person who is using VPN at the end of the day will leave with many losses and will still run the risk of responding criminally.

1 - if he is caught by the casinos security system he will have his account blocked along with the funds

2 - if he is caught by the police he will be arrested

I honestly don't see the advantage of taking this risk.

Nope. That is not the case. It is true that India is a very religious country. But the ban on gambling is not a result of religious interference. In India, the government believes that it has the right to intervene in the personal lives of its citizens. Alcohol is banned in some of the states and porn is banned across India. The government believes that they have the right to tell the population what is right for them and what is wrong. Even if a secular government was in power, they would do the same.

I'm very certain that illegal gambling operator will probably going to happen due to the banned of online gambling. The said banned will definitely affect the estate economy in which everyone knows that gambling activities are one of the good source of revenue because of the tax but on the other hand a single case of suicide might be of course need to consider since the government role is to protect the people. But since Karnataka government almost banned any related gambling and betting activities but why then there's an exception of horse racing in their banned thus horse racing isn't a gambling or betting related?

Just my thoughts,
There are several physical sports betting media that might be considered more appropriate. Also considering horse racing betting is disputed by several parties.

India is not one of the countries with the top horse racing popularity, but a major horse racing event is held every year in the country ~source (https://www.honestbettingreviews.com/popularity-horse-racing-india/). There's no way a regulation would remove a source of revenue from the gambling industry without leaving one (the biggest one), especially if the country hosts events frequently. In this case, horse racing events contribute some income, ranging from organizing permits, sponsorships, to the bets of the gamblers involved.

There will always be a way for gamblers to funnel their desire to play, maybe using a VPN at an Online Casino can get our account blocked but not all online casinos forbid the use of VPN, there still casinos that allow this. As long as there is an internet connection they will find a way to play, and in my opinion, it would be better stringent regulations than banning gambling.
In fact prohibiting it, will make illegal casinos more, even players can still gather to gamble, especially sport betting is easy to still play just contact friend and choose the sport want to betting.

The government's new update really makes people who use online gambling shock and can not believe that. But I think some gamblers who use online gambling already prepare the worst scenario with the new update from the government. Hopefully, that can really reduce the number of people who want to play online gambling.

But I think they can not block all VPN providers because that will need time before they can block the VPN access, which is not easy to do. And if traditional gambling is not prohibited, people can still play gambling by using land-based casinos. We will see what will happen to them later.

Exactly right, the Karnataka government's sudden ban on online gambling has had a detrimental effect on gamblers. Gambling halls are sitting online. This time the Karnataka government brought a bill to stop this dishonest activity. Even if he plays through VPN if the government understands the crime will be punished with 6 months imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10,000. Anyone who helps or persuades in betting will also be punished.

This is an isolated case, there are cases like this in other countries but they are not banning online betting and gambling, and what's the difference between online betting and horse racing that they exclude horse racing, they are both a form of gambling, and gamblers can still lose on both gambling forms.
This is not good there are people who treat online gambling as a form of entertainment and they should not suffer from this harsh law, those playing online betting for a long time will find ways to still play, they should do a feasibility study first before coming up with a harsh law.

Karnataka is a state and is a part of India, and yes you're right that banning online gambling in any form is not going to have a big effect in the gambling industry or can be a major effect in crypto gambling space.

As you Karnataka is a small state of India and have just a few hundred people that have been involved in gambling let alone the whole Indian country. If you search the top 15 countries who gamble online/offline, India is not in the list.

For more information and news about the banning of gambling in Karnataka, you can see this link.
https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/karnataka-notifies-law-banning-online-betting-games/articleshow/86790685.cms

maybe the guy is problematic already  , too bad that gambling is the one that is blamed for his loss and yeah theres also horse racing games online aside from horse racing that are available in sportsbetting sites .
 people can still gamble in it and banning wont make much sense . better if they will only enhance the warning in gambling or on how to be a responsible gambler and not by banning it directly .

It's a state in India. Of course it is not going to affect the gambling industry because the majority of the countries around the globe does not ban online gambling and casino, whether it's based on fiat or cryptocurrency. India only allows horse racing and lottery for ages that's why I think they banned new type of gambling because they don't need that many. Especially when you know your people are experiencing poverty and suicides at the same time.

Every decision that had been made does really have significant reasons on why they have done that.Its neither their own personal likings or for the sake for the better for their citizens.

Every country does have their own jurisdiction not only for gambling industry but also in other industries as well.It doesnt matter if those decisions will really get some criticisms.

We have voted them for such position then its their decisions which needs to be followed.

Perhaps the exception is because it has made a large contribution to the local government at the tax rate they pay to be exempt. Once again regulations will be increasingly challenged and people in India cannot simply avoid gambling, even if they are illegal to do so. Like most in other countries all against regulations that are illegal for the sake of pleasure.

Now that kind of policy sounds ridiculous, if it only refers to big income, it's better not to ban gambling, but to provide new rules for all gambling to pay taxes per month/year to the government. Otherwise, the sanction of closure applies or with an appropriate fine. Isn't that fair enough for all parties? So that no one is harmed either from gamblers, casinos, or the government itself.


Or maybe there is some kind of India tradition that considers horse racing to have a spiritual value. Apart from the gambling in it. Because India, with a fairly thick diversity of traditions, maybe this makes horse racing a show that they must hold every year.

The entertainment to their community are now cut sad to see that still this is not the end only the online gambling in some reason the have the rights to do it also to prevent some people gamble that money, of course, there's a big reason like massively report of gambling addiction to their country still some of the gambling-like horse race game is still open to making it its one of the most popular and its too hard to remove this because there are rich people invested to got this gambling entertainment.

I also heard this county name for the first time but the question is can they ban them ?

I mean can't the people use VPN and access the online gambling ?  They can ban gambling in their country but people can still gamble on online international sites with crypto.

 Yeah before everyone starts panicking about India banning an unbannable currency for the nth time, lets all remember that cryptocurrency can be used for online gambling services but the same goes for fiat or even coupons. So banning it won't really bring any kind of results I would say...

...Other than that I have stopped trusting banning of bitcoin news over the years. If anyone could have banned it, they already would have.

Bitcoin is forever. ;D

So it is fine if a person shift from Online gambling to betting on horse racing and then get addicted and then commit suicide? These lawmakers are really stupid or they are pushed by the bribes they are getting from these horse racing venues.

In most cases these online gambling bans has nothing to do about the losses that people suffer.... but more with the licenses that are bought to operate these venues. (It also applies to people that want to host local lotteries)

This is also why they restrict the amount of companies that are allowed to operate... because the bribes are bigger, if it is difficult to get it approved.  ::)

That's quite true, despite the many policies that have recently sounded very unfavorable in India. I had heard news on TV channels that Indians are tenacious, creative and also highly motivated people. Despite the dense population they clearly prioritize education in a way that doesn't always go to high school.

Back to the gambling regulations in India, especially the Karnataka region, that so far there are still active gamblers and ignore the rules that have been set. At a glance, India is easy to enter the crypto space because indeed they had a role when Bitcoin was ignored there. Until now the Indian community is active in the Bitcoin movement, crypto gambling and many other cryptocurrency projects that they have launched, although not all of them are really successful.

This is what I absolutely despise with all of these lawmakers.

They try to bully everyone with their policies... Except for their friends who pay them the big bucks.

This ban will not work. How will they catch the people who gamble? The U.S. government can't even control/regulate online gambling especially through VPNs that circumvent any IP restrictions, let alone a state in India.

That ban will work temporarily, but yes, it is difficult to catch people because of gambling, so they need to revise their policies sooner or later. We do not have an idea about how they will do that to their people.

Maybe some officials like to bet on Horse Racing so they did not include that in their policy to still bet on their favorite game. Maybe we will see an update from their government about the policy and hopefully, they will not be too strict as before.

I think I've read that incident of suicide before but if that's the reason why they're putting a ban onto online gambling due to it, no one can stop them if they see the bad out of it.
That's a reminder to all gamblers that when you gamble, just keep it to yourself and be calm at all times and before you gamble, think of it as you've already lost and you're okay with it.

Maybe that incident add up the urge of government to ban it but I think that's not the primary reason on why they implement that. Maybe they see it disastrous to their citizens that's why they cut off the its access to the people there. But I think its ok since there are still other choices to play if they really want to gamble and they should follow what government implement.

Also maybe the best thing to execute to calm ourself while gambling is to lose only the amount what we can afford to lose and make sure that one is just an extra money since if we put all our money hoping that it will multiply immediately then provably we will also think bad on our selves since losing everything is so stressful.

It could also be that there's something that has happened in a different situation and they're foreseeing it to happen again if they won't stop it. But this is very common and not new whenever there's a country or a state that has banned online gambling.
It can also be a competition within the vicinity of the city that has a local casino but I don't know if there is on that place.

Possible reasons;

1. Competition against physical casinos
2. Rampant people are getting addicted and messed out their lives
3. Simply doesnt really like gambling due to its addiction common problem.
4. There might be some exclusions and it will vary

Decisions made does depend on certain reasons but those are just common ones.There's nothing we can do if government
had posted or does make out restrictions.

They cannot impose a tax on online casinos that is not within their jurisdiction, physical casinos are generating business and employment compared to online casinos that are located overseas they are making a profit at the expense of their people without paying their government, but they are acting like totalitarian and this is something that will have effect when these legislators seek for re-election.

Gamblers especially those playing for years will always find a way and it will lead to corruption, I read in one article where underground internet cafes catering to gamblers because their government is banning online gambling.