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Delhi HC: Playing Rummy For Small Stakes Isn’t Illegal

“Trial court, in my opinion, also has rightly held that merely because a card game of rummy was played in the club premises with small stakes from a few annas to some rupees would not make it gambling as held by the Supreme Court,” is what Justice Valmiki Mehta had to say.

Justice Mehta of the Delhi High Court repeated the law stated in the 1967 Supreme Court ruling of State of Andhra Pradesh v. K. Satyanarayana, making it clear that playing rummy for small stakes (annas to a few rupees) in clubs does not amount to ‘gambling’. This ruling came shortly after the Delhi High Court said no to the game of poker, calling it gambling.

A former employee of the Central Secretariat Club, Suresh Kumar, filled an appeal to the Delhi HC, against a trial court order, by which he was directed to pay 3 lakh INR to the Central Secretariat Club, as compensation for having filed a false and defamatory police complaint against office bearers of the club.

Under the Gaming Act, an offence could be made if there is evidence that the club is conducting gambling activities in some way or the other, or the club is able to generate itself revenues or profits from the game of poker. The decision was made after Kumar’s complaint mentioning that the club had allowed gambling in the premises, operated by a ‘mafia’.

For similar gaming content from India and Asia, keep your eye on GutshotMagazine.com!

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