SHOULD GAMBLING BE LEGAL IN INDIA ?

Gambling in India is more of a tradition , if we look at Indian history and their approach towards gambling , the gamblers were mostly the elite , or in other words , it was the game of the rich , it was the way to spend their free time ,which the youth of today spend on social media .Gambling never had any sort of negative impact until the Mahabharata happened ,when the approach of the people towards gambling and gamblers changed , where two brothers fought to each other for the kingdom , Yudhisthira ‘s was tricked by Duryodhana (who was also his cousin ) and Shakuni in the game of dice where Yudhisthira’s last gamble was his own wife and not to mention , the kingdom , and even himself which later turns into the biggest war ever happened. According to historians of Hinduism who believe it was because of that gambling habit of Yudhisthira which then was used by Duryodhana and Shakuni which led to something which can never be forgotten,and shall not be repeated.It turns out , spending a time on social media is not that bad. Gambling was advertised negatively after Mahahbharta as much as possible throughout generations and generations like a sin in the mind of the people, it was not something to enjoy but it became the synonym of destruction.

Today gambling in India alone generates 60 billion dollars per year in which approx half of the money is said to be legal and the other half is declared illegal, now the question is why is it illegal in India when it has potential to generate this amount of wealth? or the question can be why it is legal when history tells us that it brings nothing but destruction? , or the government really cares about all this?

First of all the decision is not to be made by central government but state government which then be approved by the supreme court under the condition where gambling games must be skill based, for example betting on horse race is not illegal in eyes of court because the money is not betted on the horse but the jockey, it's his skill which you are betting on , but court will not accept gambling games for example dice , where participants have no control on the outcomes of the dice , he is doing it blindly which is based on luck or court call it a ‘game of chance.’

But the fun part is that ‘ skill ’ is not defined , so if you prove that gambling game of yours is a skill to the court then it will be considered legal.

But why it is still legal when the history tells us it is sin , because the law is not made by exceptions or some radical believe’s , now why it is still illegal when it can generate billions of dollars for example Goa , Goa have 14 casinos in total which generate 1.75 crore per day and it also attracts a lot of tourism there because of the casinos , then why it can not be legalised in major state , well that can debatable , mostly not only in India but all around the world one can find more casinos which is hotspot for the rich , for example Monte Carlo , Las Vegas , the venetian macao and so on , well the reason is they don’t care about money , money is something not that important for them so they have the privilege to bet as much as they want. It is not same for the poor , there is an issue of poverty line because it is not about enjoying the game but it is their to way to survive , it's more like their job to gamble to feed them self and we cannot deny the fact that becoming rich overnight is the dream of every poor man , maybe because they know hardwork is not the key to success but to become the slave of the successful one’s. No wonder it is still the game of the rich

Critics who are in favour of gambling say , legalising gambling can be a game changer for the economy in India but not with strong points where the opposition critics say it can cause money laundering and social destruction. That doesn't mean you can’t gamble , of course you can , but not in a public place , because it will be like promoting gambling in the society. I already told you it’s a sin in the minds of the people.

But! but! but! Why are we debating about something when there is an alternative to that , no it’s not the alternative of gambling but the alternative of where you will be gambling. We all know everything is on the internet then why not gambling. Online betting has seen enormous growth in recent years all around the world , worth almost 219 billion dollars today.

The industry alone has 400 million users of india who are betting their money on sites like MPL , Dream 11 , Onebet and so on generating 1 billion dollar every year and it is just the beginning

Now , why is online gambling legal in almost all states of India , simply because there is no technical law which can be practised on online betting although the government can impose it , so again you just have to prove that your game is skill based and it will not be a problem in any state. Now the critic who says gambling can generate good revenue in India , well it’s happening because the government can generate good revenue by just licensing these offshore or local sites and so can the users of these sites and they will not become rich overnight. Now the critic who says it can be used for money laundering or can cause social destruction , well there will be no destruction when there is no real society because we have still not accepted the social media as the real thing although we do know perfectly what it is capable of but still it is not going to cause social problems because it is not happening in public places , so to speak it is more like covering the sin by putting a blind fold in the name of online betting or even if it does cause social problems it can still not have that of a negative impact because of skill involved in it.

Why is it so important to gamble anyway? It gives us an opportunity to challenge fate so we can prove we are not ordinary one’s to oneself and to others. No doubt there is not a single person on the planet who has seen oneself as an ordinary being but as extraordinary. Being ordinary is wound to the oneself , the only reason they worship the god because they want to be special in the eyes of god , gambling create these circumstances , the thrill , the risk to lose everything, and to gain that feeling of being god amongst men.Gambling addiction starts like that ,first he will test their fate and if accepted by it he will enjoy it and when get rejected by it he will challenge it.

The people who became the addict to the gambling is because they have tasted that feeling of being extraordinary , of being special , superior and when they start losing it they just don’t care they want to have that feeling for being superior ,add money to it and it become more thrilling hence it creates the great chance for the poor to earn easy money .Gambling is choice of one who want to win something not by the skill , but by the idea of being extraordinary or that god is with them or they are god themself and this ideology is what make them stay where they are.The poor has this idea of being victim of their above’s, the government , the elites , even the fate ,and this create the idea of destruction of laws , they think of themselves as being outcasted by the society where the irony is they are the one who shares the most of this world in terms of population.The idea of being victim or of being oppressed by their above.Even marxism supports this ideology of victimisation of the poor by using the word capitalism but in a very briefly and terminological way , using words like commodities and idea of capitalism “what you own is what you are'', so the poor can challenge the authority but the poor still is poor instead of challenging the authority they challenge their fate. No wonder , for me indian concept of law for gambling legalisation is best in the world which is to promote the skill which may transform people to not rely on fate or to abandon it but to reject this stupid term 'FATE.'

Gambling is not that harmful but the human tendency has no limits ,there are psychological , social and historical factors that cannot be denied because it has the power to destroy the society and their moral values and ethics and even themselves. Online betting will be the choice for me. If I have that urge to challenge fate I would choose the online platform which provides me with proper guidelines.

Now should gambling be legal in India ? Well in a capitalist world of ours where we can make money from basically anything by making it a commodity sure it must.And yes I'll not gamble my wife.

BY HARSH VARDHAN