Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday struck down in its entirety an amendment by the state government to the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act that banned online games such as online rummy and online poker with stakes. The first bench, consisting of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, held that ‘by imposing a complete ban, the amendment has failed the least intrusive test and violated Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution’.
While dictating the oral orders, the bench also stated that the amendment of the gaming act itself was capricious, irrational, excessive and disproportionate. The case concerns a batch of lawsuits filed by online gaming companies challenging a state ordinance banning online games in November 2020.
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A petitioner challenging the legal validity of the ordinance promulgated by the Tamil Nadu government banning online rummy stated that the Supreme Court and various High Courts across India had consistently defined rummy as a game of skill and not chance. In its defense, the state argued that it banned online betting games, including card games like rummy, because they have led to seven suicides in the past five years as well as other crimes.
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