Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) mouthpiece Murasoli on Friday hit out at the Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, days after he returned the online gambling prohibition bill, passed by the State legislature.

The ruling party in its mouthpiece again raised concerns regarding the online gambling and said that the influence of it are leading to number of suicides in the State. “Many people in Tamil Nadu are being cheated because of online gambling, and it is leading to suicides. By witnessing all this, would the State government would remain inactive? Do the State Government don’t have any responsible to curb online gambling?” it asked.

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The mouthpiece said that the Governor is not allowing the State government, which is doing its job to eradicate the cases of online gambling in the State.
Taking a jibe at State Governor’s decision to return the bill, Murasoli in its article further wrote that the “brave” Governor is not publicly supporting the online gambling.

“Brave Governor returned the bill citing that the State government is not competence to pass the bill. Instead he should say that the ‘online rummy’ shouldn’t be banned as it is a good game, being carried from Mahabharatha time,” it read.

“The Governor should have said that it [gambling] continues from the period of Mahabaratha and that one good state’s government should encourage such games. But the Governor is not saying this,” it read further.

Governor RN Ravi on Wednesday sent back the bill to the state government meant to prohibit online gambling and the regulation of online games, passed by the Assembly on October 19, 2022.

The Governor has returned the bill after four months and also sought further clarification regarding the bill from the state government.

Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy on October 19, 2022, presented a bill in the state assembly to ban online gambling games. The Bill was introduced for banning online gambling platforms including Rummy and Poker.

The Tamil Nadu government in March had stated that they were committed to banning these online platforms and also asserted that they have been making efforts to invoke the laws that serve the said purpose.