The legal position of poker in India just became more complicated following a Bombay High Court decision that the game is one primarily of chance and therefore falls within the definition of gambling.
The publication DNA India reports that the case has its roots in a 2016 police bust of a poker ring operated in a residential area, in which 29 persons were arrested under various sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act. They were subsequently granted magisterial bail and released.
Nasir Patel, the person accused of operating the ring, obtained interim relief from the courts, stopping the police from filing a charge sheet whilst he petitioned the courts for a ruling, arguing that the poker game raided by police was just a private party with friends, and poker was being played for entertainment purposes only.
“The Karnataka High Court and other high courts have clearly held that poker is a game of skill and if the same is played without flouting any norms in accordance with law, it’s not an offence,” Patel claimed. “Prima facie there is no case to establish how a card game of poker, being played among friends, within the four walls of a private place could be gambling, until the same is not prohibited by any law.”
A division bench of Justices RM Sawant and Sarang Kotwal disagreed however, asking: “How can poker be a game of skill? You simply get the cards and open it, and if chance be, you will win.”
The bench further observed: “We have perused the description of the game, we find that it is not a game of skill but of pure chance. Prima facie we find that a case under the gambling act has been made out.”
Patel’s petition was rejected, and the restraint on the police lifted.