ollowing the ban on online rummy by the Kerala government, the Kerala High Court has on Monday said that these online games are played with stakes and that the ban on them is unconstitutional as it is predominantly a game of skill.
According to a report in Bar and Bench, the observation was made by Single judge Justice TR Ravi while hearing a bunch of petitions that challenged the ban. It further pointed out that banning online games of skill that are played for money was a violation of fundamental rights.
The Supreme Court has observed that competitions, where success is dependent on a person’s skill, could not be considered as gambling and therefore, it could not be prohibited under state gambling and gaming legislations. Based on this observation, the petitioners said that the game should be protected under Article 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution, the report added.
Recently, the Madras High Court had struck down the amendment made to the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, 1930 that imposed a ban on online games played with stakes. The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy struck down the law while disposing of the writ petitions filed by private companies offering online games including Junglee Games India Private Limited.
