Call a spade a spade: It's online gambling that's banned

There's poetic justice in calling out real money online gaming for what it is and acting against it

- YUGANK GOYAL

kay, first off, I am not a fan of the big state in general. If anything, quite the opposite. But then, I am not a fan of universalizing theories in social sciences either. Theories are seductive, empowering. But they're also like a hammer: if you grip them too tightly, suddenly everything looks like a nail. That is why it intrigues me that 'experts' have criticized India's ban on real money gaming, or gambling. Surely, these arguments spring from theory—the state shouldn't tell individuals what to do; we could lose dynamic efficiency, harm the entrepreneurial spirit and destroy value. These are familiar tropes.

So here's the truth. The state will always rule on morality. Seeds of all public policies germinate on one ethical ground or another. In fact, we vote governments to help reflect the preferences or will of society. Sympathy is central there. Those who rely on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations will find it worthwhile to read his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Also, policies are always works-in-progress. Societies and governments are complex adaptive systems, organizing through trial-and-error and learning by doing. Some years ago, a twist of law interpretation enabled online gambling as "games of skill." It grew, but then reality set in. The Indian state was learning fast: online games had become gigantic cash machines, most of which extracted idle money from low-income households. It snowballed into a mess that could not be overlooked.