Tamil Nadu Government on 27 April 2023 told the Madras High Court that its new Act that puts a ban on all forms of online gaming is a necessity as it will protect the citizens of the State as the addiction to online gaming is destroying families. This was also spoken out in the case of All India Gaming Federation v State.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal presented the case for the State Government and told the Bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy the court must take cognisance of the intent behind planning to give effect to such a legislation.
“The primary argument is this is about private interest versus public interest. The Court will have to look at the intent behind this legislation. It is required to protect the people of Tamil Nadu,” Sibal stated.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal protected the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022. This Act had obtained the Governor’s approval on April 10 2023 and prohibits all forms of online gambling and online ‘games of chance’ including online Rummy and Poker.
The Court was listening to a batch of pleas brought up by the All India Gaming Federation and several online gaming companies contesting the validity of the Act.
The pleaders had also sought out an interim stay on the enactment of the Act, and interim safeguard from any coercive measure.
However, the Bench declined to decree any iinterim orders, declaring that any such judgment could be given only after handing out a notice to the State government. The State is expected to make a reply to the pleas by July 3 which will be the next date of hearing.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who turned up for the online gaming industry, stated that the Act was completely “illegal.” He further let out that the State had “mischaracterised” the game of Rummy and that while the State was saying that the Act imposed a ban only on ‘games of chance’ and not ‘games of skill,’ it had erred in clubbing online Rummy, which pertains to as much skill as chance, with games that were to be banned.
“This Act is mainly for gambling and betting that involve chance issues and not skill. This whole red herring of skill is just that, a red herring. Most importantly, per se in the matter of law, in the 70 years of jurisprudence, your Lordships have held year after year that Rummy is a game of skill. So how can this impugned Act ban Rummy?”, Senior Advocate Manu Singhvi argued.
The Court, nonetheless, raised a question that what was the problem in forbidding online gaming.
“Everywhere people are crying. Wives say the men are wasting money, getting addicted. The State says the Act is to protect its people. So how can we interfere?”, Court questioned.
Singhvi gave answer that the Court was speaking of social realities. But the State cannot impose the totality of all social evils on the head of the game of Rummy, he declared.
“Do you (State) ban lottery? You earn the maximum revenue from lottery. Drinking, a far greater social evil. That you’ll welcome,” he presented.
When Justice Chakravarthy questioned that who shuffled the cards in online Rummy, Singhvi spoke out there was an “algorithm that was better regulated than a physical shuffling of cards, and was unsusceptible to any skewed, non-level playing field”.
“It is not like those James Bond movies that your Lordships must have watched where cards come in from anywhere,” Singhvi conveyed.
Senior Counsel Aryama Sundaram, who also occurred for the petitioners, conveyed to the Court that the Central government had already formulated laws governing online gaming. Accordingly, the Tamil Nadu government cannot have a parallel law on the identical topic, he asserted.
Senior Advocate Satish Parasaran and Advocates Deepika Murali, Suhrith Parthasarathy and Suhaan Mukherjee also presented the case for the petitioners.
Along with Sibal, Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram and Additional Advocate General Amit Anand Tiwari also appeared for the State government.
Written by Sonakshi Misra, 2nd year (4th semester) B.A.LL.B. Hons. Student at Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Legal Studies, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
