Andhra Pradesh passes bill banning online games

The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on December 1, 2020 passed the AP Gaming (Amendment) Bill 2020 through voice vote, banning online gaming in the state.

Speaking on the bill, AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the bill was brought in after some youngsters in the state committed suicide after being pushed into debts by playing online games.

The state's Home Minister M Sucharita informed that the AP Gaming Act, 1974 was being amended to bring online gaming into its purview.

Key Highlights 

•Several internet websites that claim to provide gambling services are not authentic and there are no regulatory measures to check the legitimacy of these sites.

•This makes it easy for such sites to defraud the customers, as per the state Home Minister.

•She also added that this raises a lot of security and privacy issues.

Penalty for Violation of Bill's provisions

•Under the amendment bill, the penalty for the first offence will be imprisonment up to one year and a fine of Rs 5,000.

•The term of imprisonment might extend up to two years and a fine of Rs 10,000 for every subsequent offence. 

•Every offence under the bill has been made cognisable and non-bailable.

Other Details

The AP Assembly also passed the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Laws (Second Amendment) Bill 2020 and three other bills by voice vote to give a major push to the aquaculture sector, which contributes almost Rs 50,660 crore annually to the state's economy.

The three bills include:

-The AP Fish Feed (Quality Control) Bill

-The AP Aquaculture Seed (Quality Control) Amendment Bill

-The Andhra Pradesh Fisheries University Bill 2020

The aqua sector Bills comprise provisions for setting up a regulatory mechanism, which will ensure quality of fish feed and seed to prevent farmers from incurring losses due to spurious feed.