Andhra Pradesh Government had earlier banned online gambling in the state. The state chose to regulate a grey area of the law which had failed to address online gambling.
Physical gambling operations and playing is banned under Public Gambling Act, 1867 all over India and the states too, have their own separate legislation.
In the month of September the amendments to Andhra Pradesh Gaming Act, 1974 were approved by the cabinet and the online gambling applications like Rummy, Poker etc. were banned.
Following the ban, Indian online poker rooms such as PokerStars.IN, Adda52, Spartan Poker and PokerBaazi have withdrawn their services to players in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
“We have added Andhra Pradesh to the list of the restricted regions. Official communication has been sent out to the players”, a spokesperson for PokerStars.IN told PRO.
However, soon after the ban, the state, due to shortage in funds and revenue, had started exploring the option of floating casinos on its coastline in Vishakhapatnam.
The official move in this direction remains to be seen.