Is Rummy legal in India?

November 17, 2024Rummy

Is Rummy legal in India ? The answer is YES.

India has an ancient relationship with gambling. It is written about in the ancient texts of Ramayana and Mahabharata.  Apparently, games of dice and cards were very prevalent way back in 430 B.C. It is a globally known fact that Yudhishtira was cheated by Shakuni in a dice game for his kingdom and wealth.  Even one of the world’s most antiquated books, the ‘Rigveda’ provides us with many references to gambling games that included both cards and dice. The “Lament of the Gambler” is a translated poem on dice from the Vedas.

The first card game that made its mark on Indian culture was Rummy. Initially it was considered to be the social lubricant and was played among family and friends during holidays. The good golden days of gambling soon came to an end as the industry became tainted and visiting a casino was considered to be an antisocial activity.  Then came the awareness of the difference between games of chance and those of skill.  This lead to the legality involved in the matter.  For long the question remained, is Rummy legal in India?  In our research to find the answer to this question, we found some answers that provide a clearer picture about it and help in removing all unnecessary doubts.

Indian Rummy

The game is also known as Paplu and played with 9 or 13 cards. The winning combination can be obtained by forming a sequential number of the same suit and four of a kind. Playing the games requires mathematical skills and just luck alone does not determine the winner. This was the reasoning that Indian law makers took into consideration before they declared the game legal. The Indian courts have pronounced Rummy as a skill based game which is why it cannot be considered an illegal activity. Only the state of Assam and Odisha are still not very clear about their respective positions.

Online Rummy

Playing Online Rummy cannot be considered as violation of the law. The Supreme Court of India has stated that “Rummy websites are out of the ambit of its scrutiny and playing on them is no offense”. It all started when the Madras High Court declared Rummy as a kind of gambling and found it illegal. However, later the ruling came as a breather for folk cheering for Rummy. The Central government further said that to judge whether these kinds of card games are legal or not should only be decided by judiciary.

What else can we expect

Gambling of any form is not legal in India. In fact, people don’t have high regards for gamblers.  But after the legalization of online Rummy, we can expect some dramatic changes.  It is expected that very soon Poker would be considered as legal too, as it also comes under the skill based group of games.

At any rate, we can expect to see a clearer stand by legal authorities on all sorts of gaming activity in India as gaming becomes mainstream.  We predict that games of skill will be declared legal, will have some sort of governing authority and a definite tax structure associated with it in times to come.

Related Online Gaming Posts