The government is aware of the possible risks associated with online gambling: MoS IT

The government is aware of the risks and harms to users related to online games involving monetary transactions and their advertising through various media channels, but the Ministry of Information Technology has no proposal to categorize them. “gambling”, Parliament informed on Friday.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said the government is aware of the growing number of online games available in India, and the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship that come with them. are associated.

“The rapid expansion of the mobile and internet ecosystem in India has also seen the emergence of many new categories of mobile applications, including online gaming applications.

“The government is aware of the possible risks and challenges, including those of user harms associated with online games and their advertisements through different channels/media,” Chandrasekhar said.

He was responding to a series of questions posed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Vinay Dinu Tendulkar on whether app-based digital game advertisements through various channels encourage students, young people and people to play these games. games, in which monetary transactions are carried out through digital modes.

Chandrasekhar added that online gambling platforms are “intermediaries” and must follow due diligence under the Information Technology Act.

“All forms of gambling and betting are under the jurisdiction of the State Governments and they have enacted their laws to deal with the same in their jurisdictions…Based on requests received from designated Nodal Officers of Ministries /states for specified reasons, this department is blocking applications/URLs,” he said.

The minister said due process specified in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Public Access to Information) Rules 2009 is being followed to block applications.

In response to the question “whether the government has prepared a plan to bring these games into the category of gambling”, Chandrasekhar said that “there is no specific proposal with this ministry”.

(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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