The Madras High Court, the highest court in Tamil Nadu, India, has declared that rummy and poker are games of skill but has upheld other bans in the Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022, Yogonet reported November 14.
The law was originally introduced by the state government after several suicides were allegedly linked to losing money on online gambling.
It was challenged by the All India Gaming Federation and other online gaming providers.
The court’s first bench, consisting of Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice P D Audikesavalu, quoted by the Press Trust of India, said in its judgment: “We affirm that the impugned Act, as a whole, does not need to be held ultra vires. It is held that the State is competent the legislate to the extent of prohibiting online gambling, specifically games of chance, at the same time, it has got the authority to regulate online games of skill.”
The bench said that the interpretation of “online gambling” should exclude games of skill and added, “the games of rummy and poker are games of cards but are games of skill.”
The TN Prohibition of Online Gaming and Regulation of Online Games Act of 2022 had criminalized skill games such as poker or rummy.
The bench said that while the state could not ban online games of skill, that it could regulate them in how many hours they are played, set time limits and determine minimum ages to play them.
