The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to strike down the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022 in its entirety, but ruled that the prohibition would apply only to games of chance and not to games of skill such as rummy and poker.
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu said the State government had miserably failed to demonstrate how rummy and poker, declared as games of skill by the Supreme Court, would become games of chance when played online.
“The contention of the State that the petitioners (online gaming companies) may use bots is without any basis. The said propositions, on behalf of the State, are merely on surmise,” the Bench said, and pointed out that the 2022 Act specifically deals only with online games and not offline games.
