CHENNAI: At last, the battle to prohibit online rummy games by the State government has ended. The curtains were wrung finally when the Supreme Court ruled that the State government has power to prohibit the game and that it was a misnomer to call it a game of skill. The court ruled the State can ban any betting or gambling.
This success, won by the efforts of the Tamil Nadu government, has also helped entire South India as the 4 states had a similar problem — their respective legislation were struck down on a thin framework.
For Tamil Nadu, winning such a battle and fighting for the rights of the State’s legislative power was a challenge, and it also established their might over the gambling corporate entities. It will not be out of place to refer to the earlier developments before one looks into the present issue of online rummy.
When playing cards were free with betting and done in an organised social club, one did not think much about the evil side. But when an organised racket permeated into the rural areas sucked gullible farmers into losing their earnings, savings and in many cases, even their inheritance, and subsequently, their lives by suicide, it was taken seriously as a social issue.
That gambling is a cunning exercise and you could lose not only the kingdom but also your wife is a lesson that has been explained very well in the Mahabharat. Yet one never learns life’s important lessons from such puranic stories.
When the City Police Act 1888 authorised the police to enter any place where betting and gambling was practiced like a business, it was challenged in courts. While the court upheld the law penalising gambling and betting, it made a curious exemption to the card game of rummy that it was not a game of chance but one of skill.
Thanks to the introduction of online games, rummy gained popularity among serious gamers. What was initially touted as a game was later found to be a cleverly conceived app by which the player would lose, irrespective of his skill since fighting against a pre-programmed machine was not easy.
The TN legislature initially attempted to ban the game. The list of head of the legislative source was traced to the betting and gambling found in the Seventh Schedule, which was exclusively a state subject
When several people, including homemakers, died by suicide after placing heavy bets playing rummy and lost them subsequently, there was a campaign to ban the game and make it illegal to play. The Tamil Nadu legislature initially attempted to ban the game under the powers vested on it by the Constitution. The list of head of the legislative source was traced to the betting and gambling found in the Seventh Schedule, which was exclusively a state subject.
Similar exercises were also undertaken by Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala. The respective High Courts did not lose any time to strike down these laws based on the precedents that rummy was a game of skill and not of chance, and therefore it was held that the State could not ban online rummy.
The proverbial ball was with the Committee of Experts, appointed by Tamil Nadu government, and headed by the a retired High Court judge, which had to suggest methods by which the online rummy could be stopped legally. The committee, after deliberations, gave its report (June 2022) recommending a suitable legislation to ban online rummy. And, the power to make such a law was traced to public order and public health.
By the time the committee submitted its report, the number of suicides due to losing money playing online rummy had crossed 30.
Accordingly, the State legislature passed a law in 2022 to prohibit online gambling and regulate online games. The Bill was sent to the then Governor, RN Ravi, who kept it with him without either giving his assent or dissent. It was after a court intervention that a 39-page remarks were offered by him, which was unheard of in the legislative history of any state.
Even after a suitable reply was given, the assent was delayed once again. Once again, with the help of another court order, the assent was given by Raj Bhavan (now renamed Lok Bhavan).
The Act was challenged before the Madras High Court on the basis that the State lacked power under the legislature to ban online rummy. That it was a ‘game of chance, not skill’ was reiterated as the reason for challenging the Act.
By then, the Karnataka legislation banning online rummy was challenged in the HC there, and subsequently, pending judgment before the Supreme Court. However, in Telangana, the Bill could not succeed since the court refused to weigh in or interfere at that stage.
The TN government, undaunted by its earlier failure, moved the Supreme Court, to convince the apex body of the necessity of framing such a law to save the gullible people from falling prey to organised corporate gambling.
In the meantime, the Union government imposed a 27% GST on online rummy, and the states, by allowing such a game, were likely to get sizable revenue. When the disaster was reaching an alarming proportion, it framed regulations to regulate online games, including rummy. The least that was expected of the Union government was to frame a pan-India law to ban online gambling so that the arguments of state legislatures lacking power does not arise since the Parliament has the residuary power to enact a law on the subject.
The least that was expected of the Union government was to frame a pan-India law to ban online gambling so that the arguments of state legislatures lacking power does not arise since Parliament has the residuary power to enact a law on the subject
Fortunately, a division of the Supreme Court comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan, in their detailed order, upheld the legislation of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. They also held that the old notions of gambling and betting should be forgotten and the court must take an activist role in prohibiting the new online monsters which are nothing but the new avatar in the old attire.
This success story – attempting to establish a legislative lead to ban online gambling by a prolonged legal struggle to prevent denizens from losing their hard-earned earnings and their lives in an organised loot framed by the corporate gamblers – is entirely due to the efforts of the Tamil Nadu government, which should receive due appreciation and credit.
(The writer is a former judge of the Madras High Court, who headed the committee formed by the Tamil Nadu government to study the issue)