Western countries are taking a liberal stance towards gambling as the activity has been legalized to a large extent. Thanks to that, they have been able to bask in the benefits that it provides. As a result, legalizing the activity stands to be an effective method of spreading benefits across the country. However, the situation is quite different for the Asian country of India because gambling laws here are yet to classify the activity as legal.
The Current State of Affairs
To understand the current state of affairs in the gambling scene, one needs to look at the outlook that India has framed towards gambling. While you might hear the loud noise of online gambling, it is quite hard to come across the casino action that is prevalent in Las Vegas. Since laws tend to bring in loopholes, a few elements of gambling are known to be legal, and the rest are illegal.
For example, horse racing and rummy are known to be games of skill, and thus people are free to place bets. But at the same time, cricket betting and the game of poker do not fall under the same description. As a result, you cannot play poker or place sports bets on the rest. Due to all this, everyone tends to be confused about the Indian take on gambling as the laws are not entirely progressive.
State Gambling Laws
Another point of confusion comes from different states that have different gambling laws. Yes, that’s right. Even though there are centralized acts in place, gambling laws in the country tend to include differences in the form of state laws. The basic answer for the same comes from the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, which gives states the right to legislate and make policies that are closely related to gambling and betting.
While such powers are given to the states, they have not used the same to bring about a massive difference. To date, around 13 states have legalized lottery, and two states, i.e., Goa and Sikkim, have gone ahead to legalize different forms of gambling. Due to that, if you keep moving from one state to another, you will be struck with varying laws of gambling that bring about various forms of outcomes.
The Last Resort
In case you’re a gambler, you might be confused about the place where you can legally gamble in India. Well, as a last resort of hope, you have a state like Goa that has about seven-land based casinos and specific other offshore ones that operate legally. As a result, India’s laws regarding gambling remain illegal for the larger part, but it does create a difference when you change states.
