Young minds are being lured into gambling and misled. According to a letter sent to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by former Karnataka minister and senior BJP legislator Suresh Kumar, who urged her to ban online gaming advertising, marketing, and texting immediately.

Numerous cases of people losing money and losing control of their lives have been reported to the police. Kumar said that people who have been indebted and cannot repay their debts have taken the extreme step of killing themselves.

The minister said that it has come to his attention that several friends and parents of residents from both my own assembly constituency as well as other parts of Bengaluru have verbally complained about it. Their mobile phones have been bombarded with text messages and unsolicited marketing calls enticing/forcing them to bet money on online rummy games.

The company offers a welcome bonus of thousands of rupees to entice people to the game and make them addicted. He was even told by some people that blocking these numbers had been ineffective because the messages and calls were from new numbers. He further said that even though liquor and cigarettes can be consumed as allowed under the law, their manufacturers cannot advertise or market them. People are discouraged from consuming them due to the high taxes imposed by the government.

Kumar said that the government also runs campaigns to discourage tobacco use and alcohol consumption, in addition to having separate funds for these purposes. Even the Supreme Court has prohibited the sale of tobacco and cigarettes near educational institutions.

According to him, many people become addicted to it and are unable to break free, adding that they may even commit crimes out of a desperate need for money.