IV-2 Ex. (116)

[Regd. No. TN/CCN/467/2012-14.

GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

[R. Dis. No. 197/2009.

2023

[Price: Rs. 5.60 Paise.

TAMIL NADU

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

EXTRAORDINARY

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

No. 116]

CHENNAI, MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2023

Panguni 27, Subakiruthu, Thiruvalluvar Aandu–2054

Part IV—Section 2

Tamil Nadu Acts and Ordinances

[ 37 ]

The following Act of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly

received the assent of the Governor on the 7th April 2023 and

is hereby published for general information:—

ACT No. 9 OF 2023.

An Act to prohibit Online gambling and to regulate Online games in

the State of Tamil Nadu.

WHEREAS during the recent years online gaming addiction has led

many persons to incur unsustainable debt resulting in suicides;

AND WHEREAS addiction to online games have caused ﬁ nancial

distress and ruined many families;

AND WHEREAS gaming disorder, predominantly online, has been

recognized and included by the World Health Organisation (WHO),

in its International Classiﬁ cation of Diseases (11th Revision), which is

characterised by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour

and is, manifested by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority

given to gaming over other activities and continuation of gaming despite

the occurrence of negative consequences in personal, family, social,

educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning;

AND WHEREAS the Hon’ble High Court of Madras by Common

Order dated 03.08.2021 in W.P.No.18022 of 2020, etc, struck down

Part II of the Tamil Nadu Gaming and Police Laws (Amendment) Act,

2021, which banned wagering or betting in cyber space, as ultra vires the

Constitution, with liberty to bring in an appropriate legislation conforming

to the constitutional sense of propriety in the ﬁ eld of betting and gambling

by the State;

AND WHEREAS the Government constituted a Five Member

Committee under the Chairmanship of retired Hon’ble Justice

Thiru K. Chandru to advise on enacting a fresh legislation on online games;

Tamil Nadu

Act 1 of

2021

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

AND WHEREAS the Committee in its report, taking into account

the parameters of physical space of operation, time of playing, players’

relationship with other players, addiction level, amount of money involved,

level of economic activity, scale of organisers’ proﬁ t and role of credit,

has observed that online version of any game cannot be compared with

the oﬄ ine version of the game, except in cases of word games or board

games not involving any random outcome generator;

AND WHEREAS the said report further states that in the case of

online version of games including online rummy, the algorithm for the

random generators are known to the developers and hence are pseudo

random generators; such games can be played with bots (an autonomous

program or character designed to interact with systems or users); no

mechanism is available for auditing the centralised server architecture of

the gaming systems; and artiﬁ cial intelligence can be used to manipulate

the games and lure the players into continued indulgence;

AND WHEREAS the said report classiﬁ es the online games, into two

types, namely, one which have minimal or negligible randomness factor

and another having random event or count generators which are pseudo

random and are addictively designed and accordingly recommends to

regulate the former and to ban the latter;

AND WHEREAS in a recent survey conducted by the Government

among more than two lakh teachers of the School Education department,

to study the eﬀ ects of online games on school students, more than seventy

four per cent. of the teachers responded that concentration of students is

impacted, sixty seven per cent. of the respondents said that they noticed

eye defects, more than seventy four per cent. of them said they noticed

decrease in intelligent quotient, writing skills and creativity of students,

more than seventy six per cent. said they have noticed signiﬁ cant decrease

in self esteem of students, more than seventy seven per cent. said they

have noticed increase of anger in students and more than seventy two per

cent. said they have noticed indiscipline among students;

AND WHEREAS the Government, on seeking the view of the general

public on the proposed legislation, more than ninety nine per cent. that is,

10,708 out of the total 10,735 mails received, have requested for imposing

a total ban on online games;

AND

WHEREAS

seventeen

stakeholders

comprising

representatives from the online gaming industry, think tanks, political

parties, players association and social activists, who were provided

an opportunity to express their views in person, have put forth various

suggestions and requests to the Government, such as, to allow self

regulation by the industry themselves, regulation by the Government,

to diﬀ erentiate real money games and other forms of games, to provide

age and money restrictions, to ban advertisements, to prevent money

laundering, to provide grievance redressal mechanism and to provide a

total ban on online games;

AND WHEREAS it is considered that the issues of online gaming

and gambling cannot be dealt with by the old binary of game of chance

versus game of skill and a new conceptual framework is needed which

incorporates understanding of how information technology operates at

basic level, the critical diﬀ erence between physical and online in general

and also between physical and online versions of games;

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

AND WHEREAS it is an established scientiﬁ c fact that true random

outcome is not feasible in a software and any randomness will depend

upon the speciﬁ c algorithm written by the developer and that audit of

the algorithm makes it diﬃ cult to detect any hidden algorithm designed

to favour the game provider and that overlay of artiﬁ cial intelligence in

the online gaming can make the gaming scenario completely unfair to

the game player/customer, with the game service provider / facilitator

literally being able to hold all the cards; and that no scientiﬁ cally validated

algorithm for testing of even pseudo randomness is available at present;

AND WHEREAS due to the inherent addictiveness by design of

the online games and the money being put in by the game players, the

complete gaming scenario amounts to an exploitative, addictive service,

causing not only health hazards but also social and economic harm of

epidemic proportions;

AND WHEREAS many research studies on the eﬀ ects of online

gambling and online gaming addiction on youth, have highlighted

negative eﬀ ects such as development of aggressive behaviour, poor eye

sight, reduced concentration, diminished analytical thinking, decreased

productivity and hence should be viewed as a potent vice that would aﬀ ect

the long term prospects of the State and its population;

AND WHEREAS the ruining of families and suicide deaths due to

online gaming addiction aﬀ ects public health, disturbs social order and

prejudices the maintenance of public order;

AND WHEREAS the Government, after careful consideration of the

report of the said Committee, the ﬁ ndings of the survey among school

teachers, research studies on the subject, and the views of the stakeholders

and the general public, have decided to enact a law to prohibit online

gambling and to regulate online games in the State;

Bඍ it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu

in the Seventy-third year of the Republic of India as follows:-

CHAPTER-I.

PRELIMINARY.

(1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online

Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022.

Short title and

commencement.

(2) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government

may, by notiﬁ cation, appoint.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Deﬁ nitions.

(a) “Appellate Authority” means the Appellate Authority

established by the Government under section 13;

(b) “appointed day” means the date appointed under sub-section

(2) of section 1;

established under section 3;

(d) “geo-blocking” means restricting users from accessing online

content, online applications or online services, based on the user’s

geographical location;

(e) “Government” means the State Government;

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

(f) “local online games provider” means an online games

provider,—

(i) whose central management and control of the service is

in this State; or

(ii) whose service that is available for access by the

customers, is hosted in this State;

(g) “Non-local online games provider” means any online games

service provider who is not a local online games provider;

(h) “other stakes” means anything recognised as equivalent to

money and includes virtual credits, virtual coins, virtual tokens, virtual

objects or any similar thing that is purchased within, or as part of, or in

relation to, an online game;

(i) “online gambling” means online wagering or betting and

includes playing of any online game of chance for money or other stakes,

in any manner.

Explanation.— For the purpose of this clause, wagering or betting

shall be deemed to comprise the collection or soliciting of bets, the receipt

or distribution of winnings or prizes, in money or otherwise, in respect of

any wager or bet, or any act which is intended to aid or facilitate wagering

or betting or such collection, soliciting, receipt, or distribution;

(j) “online gambling service” means a service, for online

wagering or betting or for any online game of chance and the customer of

the service gives or agrees to give money or put up any other stake for the

purpose;

(k) “online game” means any game, whether or not there

are other participants in the game, that is played on an electronic or a

digital device and is managed and operated as a software through the

internet or any other kind of electronic or other technology for facilitating

communication;

(l) “online game of chance” includes any online game which,—

(i) involves both an element of chance and an element of

skill and the element of chance dominates over the element of skill; or

(ii) involves an element of chance that can be eliminated

only by superlative skill; or

(iii) is a game that is presented as involving an element of

chance; or

(iv) involves cards, dice, wheel or such other device, which

works on random outcome or event generator;

(m) “online games provider” means any person who provides a

service for the conduct of any online game;

(n) “online gaming server” means any mainframe computer or set

of computers, installed or maintained by the online games provider, that

accepts, processes, stores and validates transactions arising out of online

gaming, and which manages, monitors and controls the entire system of

online gaming;

(o) “payment gateway” means, a service that authorises a user’s

transfer of funds between banks or ﬁ nancial institutions to merchants

without direct delivery of bank or credit card account information;

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

(p) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(q) “regulations” means regulations made by the Authority under

section 5;

(r) “Schedule” means the Schedule appended to this Act;

(s) “State” means the State of Tamil Nadu;

Central Act 21

of 2000.

(t) words and expressions used herein and not deﬁ ned in this

Act but deﬁ ned in the Information Technology Act, 2000 shall have the

meaning, respectively, as assigned to them in that Act.

CHAPTER-II.

THE TAMIL NADU ONLINE GAMING AUTHORITY.

3. (1) The Government may, by notiﬁ cation, establish with eﬀ ect

from such date as may be speciﬁ ed in the notiﬁ cation, an Authority to be

called the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority, to exercise the powers

conferred on, and perform the functions assigned to it under this Act.

Establishment of

Tamil Nadu Online

Gaming Authority.

(2) The Authority shall consist of the following Members

nominated by the Government, namely:-

(a) an oﬃ cer, who has retired from a post not below the rank

of Chief Secretary to the Government - the Chairperson;

(b) an oﬃ cer, who has retired from a post not below the rank

of Inspector General of Police – Member;

(d) an eminent psychologist - Member;

(e) an expert in the ﬁ eld of online gaming –Member.

(3) The Chairperson and Members of the Authority shall receive

such salary and allowances as may be determined by the Government.

(4) The Government may, in consultation with the Authority,

provide such oﬃ cers and employees, as deemed necessary, to the

Authority, for the eﬃ cient discharge of its powers and functions under this

Act.

(1) The Authority shall perform the following functions, namely:-

(a) regulate online games;

(b) issue certiﬁ cate of registration to local online games

providers;

Government, for inclusion in the Schedule;

(d) oversee the functioning of the online games providers in

the State;

(e) collect and maintain information and data with regard to

the activities of the online games providers;

(f) request the Government to take appropriate action as

per the Information Technology Act, 2000, whenever

deemed necessary, for the purposes of this Act;

Functions of

Authority.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

(g) resolve grievances or complaints received against any

online games provider;

(h) send periodical reports to the Government in such

manner as may be prescribed;

(i)

advise the Government on any matter regarding online

gaming; and

(j)

perform such other functions as may be prescribed.

(2) The Authority may constitute such number of committees

from among its members, as it deems ﬁ t, for the eﬃ cient discharge of its

duties and performance of its functions under this Act.

Power to

make

regulations.

5. (1) The Authority may, by notiﬁ cation, with the previous approval

of the Government, make regulations consistent with the provisions of this

Act or the rules made thereunder, to carry out the provisions of this Act.

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the

foregoing power, such regulations may provide for, —

(a) time limit, monetary limit, age restriction or such other

restrictions in regard to playing of online games; and

(b) procedure to regulate its own functions.

Power to

obtain

information.

(1) The Authority, or any oﬃ cer empowered by it, in order to

perform the functions conferred on it by or under this Act, may take such

steps as may be necessary to obtain any information from any online

games provider or online game player.

(2) The Authority may give directions, requiring any online games

provider or person in-charge of any online gaming website, establishment

or premises, where any activity relating to online gaming is carried out to

furnish such information as deemed necessary.

(3) The Authority shall, while discharging any of its functions

under this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a Civil Court while

trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, in respect of the

following matters, namely:—

Central Act V of

1908.

(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person;

(b) receiving oral evidence on oath or written evidence on

aﬃ davits;

(d) requisitioning of any public record or copy thereof from

any court or oﬃ ce;

(e) issuing summons for examination of witnesses or

documents; and

(f) any other matter, which may be prescribed.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

CHAPTER-III.

GENERAL PROHIBITIONS.

7. (1) Online gambling is prohibited.

(2) Playing of online games of chance speciﬁ ed in the Schedule,

with money or other stakes is prohibited.

Prohibition of online

gambling and of

online games of

chance.

(3) No online games provider shall provide online gambling

service or allow playing of any online game of chance speciﬁ ed in the

Schedule, with money or other stakes or playing of any other online game

in contravention of the regulations, in any form.

8. No person shall make or cause to make any advertisement in any

media including electronic means of communication, in this State, which

directly or indirectly promotes or induces any person to indulge in online

gambling or play any online game of chance speciﬁ ed in the Schedule,

with money or other stakes.

Prohibition of

advertisement.

9. No bank, ﬁ nancial institution or payment gateway provider shall

engage in any transaction or authorization of funds towards payment

for any online gambling or any online game of chance speciﬁ ed in the

Schedule.

Prohibition of

transfer of funds.

CHAPTER IV.

REGULATIONS FOR LOCAL ONLINE GAMES PROVIDERS.

10. (1) On and from the appointed day, no local online games

provider shall provide any service for the conduct of any online game

except in accordance with the certiﬁ cate of registration duly obtained from

the Authority.

(2) Every local online games provider providing any service for

the conduct of any online game, immediately before the appointed day,

may continue to provide such service, subject to the general prohibitions

contained in Chapter III of this Act, for a period not exceeding ninety days

from the appointed day:

Provided that such local online games provider applies for

registration under this section within a period of thirty days from the

appointed day.

(3) Every application for registration shall be made to the Authority

in such form along with such fee as may be prescribed.

(4) On receipt of an application under sub-section (3), the

Authority may, after making such enquiry as it deems necessary, either

issue or refuse to issue a certiﬁ cate of registration:

Provided that no application for issue of certiﬁ cate of registration

shall be refused, unless a reasonable opportunity of being heard is given

to the applicant.

(5) Every certiﬁ cate of registration shall be issued in such form as

may be prescribed, subject to the following conditions, namely:—

Registration of local

online games

providers.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

(a) The online games provider shall not provide, any online

gambling service or allow playing of any online game of chance speciﬁ ed

in the Schedule, with money or other stakes;

(b) The online games provider shall neither allow nor cause

to be allowed to play any online game in contravention of the regulations.

(6) The certiﬁ cate of registration issued under sub-section (5) shall be

valid for a period of three years.

Suspension

and

revocation

of certiﬁ cate

registration.

11. (1) If the Authority is satisﬁ ed, either on a reference made to it in

this behalf or otherwise that—

(a) the certiﬁ cate of registration issued under this Act, has

been obtained by misrepresentation or fraud;

(b) the holder of the certiﬁ cate of registration has failed to

comply with the conditions, subject to which the certiﬁ cate of registration

has been issued; or

any of the provisions of this Act, the rules or the regulations,

then, without prejudice to any other proceeding to which the holder of the

certiﬁ cate of registration may be liable, the Authority may, by an order

after giving him an opportunity to show cause, revoke the certiﬁ cate of

registration by giving reasons therefor.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where

the Authority is of the prima facie view that the certiﬁ cate of registration

granted to the online games provider must be suspended, the Authority

may, do so for reasons to be recorded in writing, at any time before

revoking the certiﬁ cate.

Appeal.

12. (1) Any person aggrieved by an order of the Authority revoking

or suspending the certiﬁ cate of registration under section 11, may

prefer an appeal, within ﬁ fteen days from the date on which the order is

communicated to him, to the Appellate Authority:

Provided that the Appellate Authority, may entertain the appeal

after expiry of the said ﬁ fteen days period, if it is satisﬁ ed that there was

suﬃ cient cause for not ﬁ ling it within that period.

(2) The Appellate Authority, after giving a reasonable opportunity

of being heard to the appellant, shall decide the appeal as expeditiously as

possible, but in any case not later than one month from the date of receipt

of the appeal.

Establishment

of Appellate

Authority.

13. (1) The Government may, by notiﬁ cation, establish an Appellate

Authority, which shall consist of a Chairperson and not more than two

other members.

(2) A person shall not be qualiﬁ ed for appointment as the

Chairperson of the Appellate Authority unless he is a retired Judge of a

High Court, or is a person who is qualiﬁ ed to be a Judge of a High Court.

(3) The qualiﬁ cations for appointment of the members of the

Appellate Authority shall be such as may be prescribed.

(4) The Chairperson and the members of the Appellate Authority

shall receive such salary and allowances as may be determined by the

Government.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

(5) The Government may, in consultation with the Appellate

Authority, provide such oﬃ cers and employees, as deemed necessary,

to the Appellate Authority, for the eﬃ cient discharge of its powers and

functions under this Act.

(6) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Appellate Authority

may regulate its own procedure.

CHAPTER-V.

REGULATIONS FOR NON-LOCAL ONLINE GAMES PROVIDERS.

14. (1) No Non-local online games provider shall,—

(a) provide any online gambling service;

(b) allow playing of any online game of chance speciﬁ ed in

the Schedule, with money or other stakes; or

regulations,

Restrictions.

in this State.

(2) No Non-local online games provider shall be deemed to have

contravened sub-section (1), if he has exercised due diligence or has

provided geo -blocking in this State for the purpose.

(3) For the purpose of sub-section (2), a Non-local online games

provider shall be deemed to have exercised due diligence if it had,—

(a) informed prospective customers that the State prohibits

online gambling and playing of certain online games to customers who are

physically present in this State;

(b) required the customers to enter into contracts with an

express condition that the customers shall not use the service, if they are

physically present in this State;

suﬃ cient to establish that they were not physically present in this State;

(d) obtained data that indicated that the customers were not

physically present in this State when the relevant customer accounts were

opened and throughout the period when the service was provided to the

customers; and

(e) taken all other reasonably practicable measures to

ensure that no person physically present in this State could have access

to online gambling service or to online games of chance prohibited under

section 7.

15. (1) Any Non-local games provider who fails to comply with any of

the restriction speciﬁ ed in section 14 shall be issued with a show cause

notice by the Authority in such form and manner, as may be prescribed,

to furnish a reply within such period as may be prescribed. If no reply

is received or if the reply received is not satisfactory, the Authority may

proceed in accordance with sub-sections (2) and (3).

Procedure to

deal with non-

compliance of

restrictions.

(2) The Authority shall make a recommendation to the

Government to request the Central Government, or as the case may be,

the oﬃ cer specially authorized by the Central Government in this behalf,

to exercise the power under section 69-A of the Information Technology

Act, 2000 to block access to persons in this State to the service provided

by the Non-local online games provider:

Central Act 21

of 2000.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

Provided that,—

(a) the Government may, for reasons to be recorded in

writing, refuse to act on the recommendation of the Authority; or

(b) where the Government accepts the recommendation of

the Authority, it shall ordinarily make a request to the Central Government

within ﬁ fteen days from the date of receipt of the recommendation.

(3) A copy of the recommendation made by the Authority

under sub-section (2), shall be provided to the Non-local online games

provider concerned.

CHAPTER-VI.

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES.

Penalty for

contraven-

tion of

sections 7,

8, 10 and

14.

16. (1) Any person who indulges in online gambling or plays any

online game of chance speciﬁ ed in the Schedule, with money or other

stakes in contravention of section 7 or plays any other online game in

contravention of the regulations shall be punished with imprisonment for a

term which may extend to three months or with ﬁ ne which may extend to

ﬁ ve thousand rupees or with both.

(2) Any person who makes or causes to make advertisement

in any media, in contravention of section 8, shall be punished with

imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with ﬁ ne which

may extend to ﬁ ve lakh rupees or with both.

(3) Any person who provides, online gambling service or any

online game of chance speciﬁ ed in the Schedule with money or other

stakes or any person who contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1),

(2) or (5) of section 10 or section 14 shall be punished with imprisonment

for a term which may extend to three years or with ﬁ ne which may extend

to ten lakh rupees or with both:

Provided that a Non-local online games provider shall be

punished for contravention of section 14, only if the Central Government

or an oﬃ cer specially authorised by it in this behalf, exercises the power

under section 69-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Central Act 21 of

2000.

(4) (a) If any person convicted of an oﬀ ence under

sub-section (2) is again convicted of an oﬀ ence under the same provision,

he shall be punished with imprisonment for the second and for every

subsequent oﬀ ence for a term which shall not be less than one year, but

may extend to three years and shall also be liable to ﬁ ne which shall not

be less than ﬁ ve lakh rupees, but may extend to ten lakh rupees.

(b) If any person convicted of an oﬀ ence under

sub-section (3) is again convicted of an oﬀ ence under the same provision,

he shall be punished with imprisonment for the second and for every

subsequent oﬀ ence for a term which shall not be less than three years,

but may extend to ﬁ ve years and shall also be liable to ﬁ ne which shall not

be less than ten lakh rupees, but may extend to twenty lakh rupees.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

17. No Court shall take cognizance of any oﬀ ence punishable under

this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder except upon complaint in

writing made by a person authorized in this behalf by the Authority.

Cognizance of

oﬀ ences.

18. (1) Any oﬃ cer specially empowered by the Government, by

notiﬁ cation in this behalf, may accept, from any person who has committed

an oﬀ ence under sub-section (1) of section 16, by way of composition of

such oﬀ ence, a sum of money not exceeding the maximum amount of

ﬁ ne speciﬁ ed for such oﬀ ence but not less than ﬁ fty per cent. of the said

amount.

(2) On payment of such sum of money to such oﬃ cer, the accused

person, if in custody, shall be discharged and no further proceedings shall

be taken against him in respect of such oﬀ ence.

Power to compound

oﬀ ences.

(3) The compounding of an oﬀ ence under sub-section (1) shall

be allowed only once for any person.

19. (1) Where an oﬀ ence under this Act has been committed by a

company, every person who, at the time the oﬀ ence was committed, was

in-charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the

business of the company as well as the company, shall be deemed to

be guilty of the oﬀ ence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and

punished accordingly:

Oﬀ ences by

companies.

Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render

any such person liable to any punishment, if he proves that the oﬀ ence

was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due

diligence to prevent the commission of such oﬀ ence.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where

an oﬀ ence under this Act has been committed by a company and it is

proved that the oﬀ ence has been committed with the consent or connivance

of, or is attributable to, any neglect on the part of any director, manager,

secretary or other oﬃ cer of the company including key managerial

personnel as deﬁ ned in the Companies Act, 2013, such director, manager,

secretary or other oﬃ cer including key managerial personnel, shall be

deemed to be guilty of that oﬀ ence and shall be liable to be proceeded

against and punished accordingly.

Explanation.— For the purposes of this section, —

(a) “company” means any body corporate and includes a

ﬁ rm or other association of individuals; and

(b) “director” in relation to a ﬁ rm, means a partner in the ﬁ rm.

CHAPTER-VII.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Central Act

XLV of

1860.

20. The Chairperson, every member of the Authority and of the

Appellate Authority, oﬃ cer or any other employee of the Authority and of

the Appellate Authority shall, when acting or purporting to act in pursuance

of any of the provision of this Act be deemed to be a public servant within

the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.

Chairperson,

members, oﬃ cers

and employees

of Authority and

Appellate Authority

to be public

servants.

Central Act 18

of 2013.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

Protection

of action

taken in

good faith.

21. No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against

any public servant in respect of anything which is done in good faith or

intended to be done in the discharge of his oﬃ cial functions or in exercise

of his powers under this Act, the rules, or the regulations.

Act not in

derogation

of any other

law.

22. The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to, and not in

derogation, of the provisions of any other law, for the time being in force.

Presumption

as to online

game of

chance

and power

to amend

Schedule.

23. (1) For the purposes of this Act, any online game speciﬁ ed in the

Schedule shall be presumed to be an online game of chance.

(2) The Government may, by notiﬁ cation, omit or add any online

game in the Schedule, on the recommendation of the Authority and upon

issue of such notiﬁ cation, the Schedule shall be deemed to be amended

accordingly.

Power to

make rules

24. (1) The Government may make rules for carrying out all or any of

the purposes of this Act.

(2) (a) All rules made under this Act shall be published in the

Tamil Nadu Government Gazette and, unless they are expressed to come

into force on a particular day, shall come into force on the day on which

they are so published.

(b) All notiﬁ cations issued under this Act shall, unless they

are expressed to come into force on a particular day, shall come into force

on the day on which they are so published.

(3) Every rule made or notiﬁ cation or order issued under this Act

shall, as soon as possible, after it is made or issued, be placed on the

table of the Legislative Assembly, and if, before the expiry of the session in

which it is so placed or the next session, the Legislative Assembly makes

any modiﬁ cation in any such rule or notiﬁ cation or order, or the Legislative

Assembly decides that the rule or notiﬁ cation or order should not be made

or issued, the rule or notiﬁ cation or order shall, thereafter, have eﬀ ect only

in such modiﬁ ed form or be of no eﬀ ect, as the case may be, so, however,

that any such modiﬁ cation or annulment shall be without prejudice to the

validity of anything previously done under that rule or notiﬁ cation or order.

Power to

remove

diﬃ culties.

25. If any diﬃ culty arises in giving eﬀ ect to any provision of this Act, the

Government may, by an order published in the Tamil Nadu Government

Gazette, make such provisions not inconsistent with the provisions of this

Act as may be necessary or expedient for removing the diﬃ culty:

Provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of two

years from the date of the commencement of this Act.

Repeal.

26. The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of

Online Games Ordinance, 2022 is hereby repealed.

Tamil Nadu

Ordinance

4 of 2022.

TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE DIRECTOR OF STATIONERY AND PRINTING, CHENNAI

ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

THE SCHEDULE.

ΊSEE SECTION 23΋

ONLINE GAMES OF CHANCE

(1) Rummy

(2) Poker

(By Order of the Governor)

C. GOPI RAVIKUMAR,

Secretary to Government (Legislation),

Law Department.