Karnataka High Court upholds ban on lottery

The Karnataka High Court has upheld the State Government’s decision to ban sale of lottery in the State.

The High Court’s ruling came as a major disappointment to the thousands of lottery sellers across the State, who had managed to secure a temporary stay on the Karnataka Government’s decision to ban conduct and sale of lottery tickets in Karnataka.

Government counsel Venugopala Rao told reporters outside the High Court complex in Bangalore on Tuesday that the Court had found as legally tenable the Karnataka Government’s policy decision to ban sale of lotteries as announced in the recent State Budget.

The lottery dealers, who had resumed sale of lottery tickets after the High Court reprieve on April 17, will have to stop their business again, Rao added. “All lotteries whether they are from Karnataka or outside the State will have to stop their sales in Karnataka. Even online lotteries stand banned”, he said. “Karnataka is once again a lottery free state”, he added.

The High Court’s ruling on Tuesday came as a victory to the Karnataka Government, which declared the State a lottery free state with effect from April 1. After the ban on lottery, the Karnataka State Lottery Dealers’ Association and All India Federation of Gaming and Allied Industries had successfully moved the High Court and secured a stay on the ban on the grounds that no alternative arrangements had been made for the more than 150,000 lottery dealers engaged in the business of selling lotteries.

But, the State Government went in appeal against the stay granted by the High Court. The Government’s efforts paid off as the High Court upheld the ban.

Meanwhile, the dejected lottery sellers are planning to move the Supreme Court against Tuesday’s ruling. Apart from the Karnataka State Lottery Dealers’ Association and All India Federation of Gaming and Allied Industries, even the Governments of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, whose lotteries had a huge market in Karnataka, were also planning to the move the Apex court.