Sports betting a step closer to legal status

THE SC ASKED THE LAW COMMISSION LAST YEAR TO EXAMINE WHETHER BETTING ON CRICKET SHOULD BE LEGALISED AND A LAW FRAMED

NEWDELHI: The Law Commission of India is all set to recommend legalising betting on sport, including cricket, and having a stringent national law to closely regulate online gambling.

The commission was asked by the Supreme Court in July 2016 to examine whether betting on cricket should be legalised, and a law be framed to enable that. Tasked with preparing a report on the issue, the commission is now working out the finer details of its recommendations.

“Online betting is difficult to prevent, so it requires regulation. We must have a stringent law,” LCI Chairman Justice BS Chauhan told Hindustan Times.

Chauhan added that the commission’s report is not yet ready but its findings so far have led to the view that in order to stop betting on sport as an unregulated and illegal activity, the government should step in.

“This is still a tentative view. The report will be submitted next month,” he clarified.

While hearing a case on the Justice RM Lodha committee’s suggestions to reform Indian cricket administration, an SC bench headed by the then Chief Justice TS Thakur had said in its order on July 18, 2016: “The recommendation made by the committee that betting [on cricket] should be legalised involves the enactment of a law, which is a matter that may be examined by the law commission and the government for such action as may be consider necessary in the facts and circumstances of the case.”