Avinash Mehrotra has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in the Delhi High Court seeking a directive from the Union Ministry of Information Technology as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to try to end all forms of gambling within the country. The petition asks that the High Court “bring illegal and illicit online gambling/betting/wagering/gaming to an end.”

In his petition, Mehrotra claims that illegal and illicit online gambling has become an increasingly serious problem that is ruining the financial security as well as the lives of large numbers of people within the country. He adds that several websites are encouraging people to take large risks with their money on games, such as poker, sports betting, as well as election betting.

While not all the websites listed in the petition are in India, those that are listed include a fairly formidable group of betting operators. This includes such betting sites as Betway, BetRally India, 1xBet, Royal Panda, and Dafabet, as well as Indian based poker websites Adda52, PokerStars.in and Khelo365. The petition adds:

“These websites seem to encourage the horrible habit of gambling amongst youngsters, and are doing so solely with a view of making large amounts of profits at the cost of these unsuspecting citizens of our great nation.”