Andhra Pradesh bans online rummy and poker

Vijayawada, September 3: In a major jolt to the online gamers particularly, rummy lovers, the Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday decided to ban the online games like rummy and poker that were pushing the youngsters and others on a wrong path and they are losing huge money in the gaming

Information Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani) said that the state cabinet that met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy took the decision to ban online gambling. Nani said that online gambling has become a vice that was damaging the youth by ‘misleading’ them so that the government has decided to ban such online gambling to protect the youth,

The organisers of online gambling would be jailed for a year, besides being penalised, for a first time offence. The jail term would go upto two years with fine for the second offence. Also, those caught playing the online games would attract a jail term of six months, the minister added.

It may be recalled that State Secretary of CPI, K Ramakrishna mentioned that head casher of Punjab National Bank, Nuzvid Branch in Krishna district, G Ravi Teja, got addicted to online rummy so that he transferred Rs1.56 crore bank funds to his own account to fuel his gambling addiction and he lost huge amounts in the online rummy due to cheating in online rummy. Like Ravi Teja, many people addicted to online rummy and lost amounts. Ramakrishna requested Jagan to ban the online rummy in Andhra Pradesh on the lines of Telangana, Haryana, and Manipur to save the families of those who addicted to online rummy. The Rummy Federation (TRF) claimed that they have focused on responsible, secure and fair gaming aspect and continues with its initiatives to self-regulate online rummy industry in the country.