Observing that the online game of rummy is merely a ‘game of skill’ the Kerala High Court on Monday lifted the ban previously imposed by the state government. The high court quashed the notification issued by the Kerala government which had imposed a ban under the Kerala Gaming Act, 1960.
A bench consisting of Justice TR Ravi called out the govt order as being unconstitutional and in violation of the fundamental rights to trade and commerce under Article 19(1)(g) and the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Justice Ravi in his order stated “The Counsel has placed all their cards on the table. My effort is to arrange them in sets and to declare. If I arrange the cards skillfully and declare, then “rummy is a game of mere skill”. If I arrange the cards without any skill and still manage to declare, then “rummy is a game of chance”.”
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The decision after companies that were all engaged in the business of developing and offering online games of skill in India filed multiple petitions before the Kerala High Court. The petitioners had argued that the notification issued by the state government was arbitrary in nature, with no legal backing.
Appearing for one of the petitioner companies, senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that the notion that an online rummy game is addictive does not by itself make it a game of chance. He stated that by that logic, lotteries too could be addictive, but were promoted by the state itself.
The state however maintained that online rummy is not a game of skill and that there is an element of cheating involved and also manipulation of the cards being dealt.
Based on precedents, the court stated that “playing for stakes or not playing for stakes can never be the criterion to find out whether the game is a game of skill and not of chance”.
Therefore, for the same reasons that rummy was held to be a game of skill, online rummy was also a game of skill, the high court finally concluded.
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