Video Games Recently Got Equated With Cigarettes and Alcohol - as Bad as It Sounds?

Gamers in South India, especially Tamil Nadu, face stringent regulations due to the conflation of gaming and gambling under the term 'online gaming’. Misunderstanding by regulators and deliberate conflation by vested interests complicate the landscape, leading to restrictive measures that impact gamers.

Now this regulatory confusion has begun to extend beyond legal texts and into popular culture. Our gaming (I’m going to use this term to refer to video gaming and let’s just call a spade a spade and use the term ‘gambling’ when we need to) brethren who watch Tamil cinema, and more specifically a recent movie titled ‘Garudan’ came across a scene that left their eyebrows raised. This scene showcasing a kid playing a mobile video game stood out due to a disclaimer at the bottom left that read, “The Video games on internet portrayed in the film are for entertainment purpose only and Public are advised caution as it causes Addiction”.