While the Tamil Nadu government is gearing up its efforts to regulate online gaming, the Esports Players Welfare Association (EPWA) has requested the government to distinguish games of skill from gambling. In a representation made to the government recently, the association requested the state to recognise skill games as a distinct sport and not club it along with gambling.

The government should provide a safe harbour for professional, amateur and casual online skill gamers as exemption from the ambit of any state related gambling or gaming legislations, the association also added in its representation.

According to Shivani Jha, director, EPWA, multiple legislations and putting skill-based games in the same bucket as gambling is leading to criminalisation of skill-based players. 

“While India is participating in international tournaments and developers are making new games, it is imperative for the state to regulate online skill based gaming,”Jha said.

She also noted that courts have repeatedly pronounced judgments stating the state government can only make laws on online gambling and not gaming, this ends up putting players at

risk and equating them with gamblers and criminals.

It is pertinent to note that the Tamil Nadu government recently invited inputs from various stakeholders, including parents, teachers, students, psychologists, social activists and online gaming service providers on the proposed legislation to regulate online games.

While inviting the inputs, the government said unregulated playing of online games is leading to learning and social disorders, adding that many countries have laws regulating or banning online games.

On the other hand, a committee headed by retired Madras High Court judge K. Chandru submitted its report to the Tamil Nadu government in June. The report is under active consideration for regulating online gaming in the state.

Considerably, Tamil Nadu is among one of the Indian states which enforced a ban on online gaming arbitrarily. Last year, it banned online games with stakes which was eventually struck down by Madras High Court. Later, the government moved to the Supreme Court to challenge  the Madras High Court judgment.