Panaji, July 26 Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday assured the House to study the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling Act to curb the illegal activities going on in the coastal state.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao on the seventh day of the ongoing Legislative Assembly session had raised the issue of illegal online gaming and illegal (mini) casinos activities in the state.
"Youth are falling prey to online gaming and commit suicide when they go in loss. There should be a crackdown on illegal online gaming. These illegal activities are taking place in every constituency of the State. Only it is not taking place in Canacona constituency represented by Speaker (Ramesh Tawadkar). He should advise the government about how to curb these activities," Alemao said.
He charged that it is an illegal business of around Rs 30 crore per day taking place in the state where people lose money.
Replying to Alemao, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that online gaming is a serious issue and hence his government is taking steps to curb it.
Congress leader Yuri Alemao suggested bringing the Act like how it is implemented by the Tamil Nadu government, where it becomes easy to curb the illegal online games and gambling.
"I will ask the officials to study the Tamil Nadu Act and if needed then we will think in that manner. But before that I assure strict action will be taken on kiosk running (illegal casino) machines. These cases are mostly in the coastal belt. In rural areas people use mobile (for online gaming)," Sawant said.
"I am taking a review of online gaming. Presently in 11 hotels legal casinos are going on and six are offshore casinos, where Goans have no permission to enter. It is legal business," he said adding action on online gaming and illegal casinos will be taken.
He said that police in the past have taken action by raiding such illegal casinos and have shut their business. "
Yuri Alemao questioned whether the government was tracking the origin of the online game apps. "Does the intelligence of Goa Police track these Apps. Everyone knows who is operating these Apps. Future generation is getting spoiled. Curb these illegal online games," Alemao said, adding that the government should not play with the lives of innocent people.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas and Congress MLA Altone D'costa also spoke on the issue. Opposition MLAs have also asked to remove hoarding of online games from the state.
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