By: Shireen Pandit/ Hashim Khan
There are countless smartphone games that our society is utterly in the habit of playing but the most greater part of it is glued to “Pub G” and “Dream 11”, There is a population of 30 million daily active players in terms of “Pub G” and there is a add up of 100 million users in terms of “Dream 11” all over the world. Nevertheless these games possess an ill-mark in our well being surroundings that has led to numerous ailments and wrongdoings with regard to the way behavior and an action of mind.
Pub G is an online game, a division of Tencent games and was at the start for Android and iOS on 19th march, 2018. In September 2020 Pub G was banned in India due the turmoil between India and China. The game is the player versus players where there is an opposition of players who fight collectively in a battle royale where the target is to stay alive till the final ultimate take place where as Dream 11 is a sports platform where you can create your own team and allow the users to play fantasy games like cricket, rugby ,baseball , volley ball , handball. A user has to make a outlay of a definite amount to join a competition and can win valid cash.
Talking about the outcome of these smartphone games had an immense effect in our society by making the surroundings to catch the easy stress and lack of social interaction where it further promotes the users to sit at one place, By taking part for hours that led to make them lethargic and sluggish throughout. In that sense Pub G had a huge impact on the physical and mental health respectively causing a poor sleep hygiene and chronic headaches. There are several studies that has shown that this game lead a repression to the mankind . The physiological factor are likely to be much problematic where there is an inability to control the emotions such as anger, sadness, fear and low self esteem. Dream 11 has its own downside where the users are bounded to the heavy competition bringing down the chances of winning the match, It is somewhat framed as similar to the gambling and betting where you can lose your money at anytime although in small sessions if you fail to track the basic protocols of the game. There is also very low chances in the management of winning a certain amount because after the users cope up to win the amount, The users won’t be able to withdraw the winnings instantly.
There are several judgements that the Indian court has passed over these smartphone games particularly “Pub G” and the “Dream 11”
It is declared that playing on “ Dream 11” create a “game of mere skill” that lead the “Dream 11” game not liable to the Public Gambling Act, 1867 [PGA]
After a long time the court also held that the Dream 11 is a legitimate and permissible activity secured with the Article 19[1][g] of the constitution of india
On September 2,2020 as per the order of the government of India Pub G was banned due to many security reasons after the conflicts and clashes between the India and China but after ten months it was relaunched as “Battlegrounds Mobile India, Later on it was delisted from the Google play stores and the Apple APP store.
The game has apparently been banned under section 69A of the IT Act
Shireen Pandit is pursuing her Phd from Sapienza University of Rome and Hashim Khan is a law graduate.
