Get the full overview of the legal situation of gambling in India right here

Many of our readers have asked us if it’s legal to gamble in India. We understand why many of you are having this concern, so we decided to write this in-depth article to give you the most correct answer and guide you to gamble legally in India. The Indian gambling law is vague and unclear, which makes a lot of people confused. We are all good citizens, and none of us wants to break the law.

Through our own research, we have always believed that gambling is legal in India, but to make the point very clear, we decided to team up with some of India’s top legal experts to make absolutely sure that we are on the right side of the law.

When it comes to gambling, the practice is frowned upon by some Indians and embraced by many others. Gambling is really an issue that divides the country. Some believe it should be fully legal, others believe it should be regulated and some conservatives believe it should be completely prohibited.

For instance, gambling is legal in Goa, where casinos operate in luxury hotels. Also, gambling has been legal in the state of Sikkim since 2009. So, is online gambling legal in India? It depends, as the legislation is mainly based on the state’s own laws as well as its interpretations. Gaming/Gambling being a State subject, gaming/gambling in India have laws which differ from state to state. This would mean what is permitted in one State may be an offence in another. The Public Gambling Act, 1867, is the central enactment on the subject, which has been adopted by certain states of India like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya.

But what is the current legal situation of gambling in India? Unfortunately, the answer is not that straightforward. In this article, you will discover how and where you can gamble legally, which depends a lot on where you live and how you intend to gamble.

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The Gambling Act in India today. Gambling in India as a country is dictated primarily by the Public Gaming Act, which was put into effect in 1867. The government initially applied this law to the whole country but has since allowed states to handle gambling laws on their own.

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Is it legal to gamble in India?

To give you the most correct answer to this question. We have allied ourselves with one of the top legal experts on gambling in India. Mr. Sameer Kapoor Senior Advocate in the Odisha State Bar Council. Through our interview, He will attempt to give us the most legal and correct information in this article. So let’s start from the beginning.

Gambling was first prohibited in India during the colonial period under the Public Gambling Act of 1867. This law made it illegal to offer gambling services on a federal level, as well as to visit and use a public gambling facility. The law did not ake any mention of online gambling, as it was made many years before the invention of the internet.

So along comes the internet, and people start asking: Does that mean online gambling is legal, because it is not expressly forbidden under the law of 1867? The short answer is yes. If the government of India had wanted to fully prohibit online gambling, they could have amended the law to prohibit online gambling, but they never did that.

Instead, they left it up to the individual states to decide whether or not to legalize or prohibit gambling in their territory. In the state of Maharashtra, online gambling is completely prohibited, whereas, in the states of Sikkim and Goa, online gambling is officially legal and regulated.

In most other Indian states, there are no specific laws regarding online gambling, which makes it a legal grey area. For example, in the state of Tamil Nadu, it is neither legal nor illegal to gamble online. Therefore, it is not a prosecutable offense to gamble online in any state except Maharashtra.

We understand that some people may have different interpretations of the law, but after having consulted with Mr. Manoj Mishra and several other legal experts in India, they have ensured us that online gambling is not a prosecutable offense, and no one has ever been convicted or let alone prosecuted for online gambling.

The law simply states that gambling providers may not operate on Indian territory unless expressly allowed by the individual states. That is why all of the betting sites and online casinos we recommend are located outside India. It is still completely legal and possible for Indian players to start an account and place bets with these online gambling sites.

Horse racing is legal but cricket is not

In 1996, it was decided by the Supreme Court of India that horse race betting should be legal because it is skill-based rather than based on luck. This beckons the question, why is horse race betting based on skill when cricket or football bet is not? It takes at least the same amount of skill to predict the outcome of a cricket match, no?

Although we certainly agree that horse race betting should be legal, it seems completely ridiculous to make this distinction from any other sport. The only reason why policymakers decided to legalize horse race betting, is because they know that if they prohibited this, it would be the end of horse breeding in India, which has become a very profitable and prominent industry in India.

Legal Gambling In India Online

One could then ask, isn’t it kind of hypocritical to say gambling is illegal, but still legalize gambling on a few select sports such as horse racing and rummy? This is a classic example of the contradictory gambling laws of India. The government should be consistent in its policy and legalize gambling on all sports throughout India.

When will gambling be fully legalised in India?

The Indian Government is perfectly aware that many citizens are engaged in online gambling and if they wanted to illegal, they would have amended the current law to include the prohibition of online gambling. This has never been done, which means that online gambling continues to be legal in India to this day.

Now the government of India and many state governments are debating whether to legalize gambling in India completely. We believe that this would be a very smart thing to do. It would allow the government of India to collect taxes on the enormous online gambling industry. Citizens donating all this tax money to foreign governments.

It would help the Indian people feel more comfortable with online gambling. Knowing that not only legal, but also sanctioned and regulated by the federal government of India.

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Please note that the information found on this page does not constitute legal advice.

Do I risk anything by gambling in India?

In our opinion, no. According to some of the top legal experts in India. They do not know anyone who has been prosecuted or convicted for online gambling ever.

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The legality of betting and gambling has been a subject of extensive debate over the course of many years. Although in India playing of cards and rolling of dice has been in existence since time immemorial, yet, one often comes across the debates on gambling on both legal and ethical fronts. While one section seeks to legalize gambling because of the revenue it might generate for the government, the other section has been reluctant to do so owing to issues like corruption and money laundering that might germinate from it.
While the Law Commission of India, in 2018, in its report on Legalizing of Betting and Gambling in Sports recommended for regulating the gambling industry, no substantial progress has been made in this direction. The commission opined that the inability of the state to completely ban the betting and gambling has lead to corruption in sports which could be resolved if the industry is adequately regulated. This would also lead to generation of revenue to the government.

The Law Commission rightly noted that the ban is not absolute and the industry is highly unregulated. This observation stems from the fact that India has legislations relating to regulation of gambling both at central and state level, which adds to the already existing conundrum. Additionally, the legislations in place often pre-date technological advances and therefore fail to address the recent emergence of online gambling.

The legislation in place, the Public Gaming Act of 1867, is a federal legislation which outlaws the operation or being the person in-charge of a public gaming house. It states that it is illegal to operate a public gaming house and also prohibits people from visiting gambling houses. The contravention of this law attracts a fine of Rupees 200 or imprisonment upto 3 months. However, the Act is archaic and does not specifically address the aspect of online gambling. The Act itself predates the recent advancements in technology and fails to address online gambling. Due to this fact, millions of people in India indulge in online gambling on sports and casinos.

Another legislation, the Information Technology Act, 2000 regulates cyber activities in India but does not address legality of gambling or betting. The Act does not specifically address online gaming or gambling thereby making no impact on legal position of online gambling.

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Further Entry No.34 of List II of the Constitution of India, 1950 empowers the states to make laws on betting and gambling. Due to this entry, many states in India have their own legislations dealing with gambling and are subject to different interpretations. For example, Bombay Wager Act bans online gambling in the state of Maharashtra and Delhi Public Gambling Act, 1955 bans gambling in the union territory of Delhi but makes an exception for ‘game of skill’. However, the states of Goa and Sikkim are the only states that have legalized gambling with appropriate licensing requirements and at restricted places. The Goa Gambling Act, 1976 allows playing of cards at off-shore vessel. Sikkim is the only state to have a law on online gaming which is the Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulation) Act, 2008. The Act however was later amended to restrict online gaming activities to physical gaming parlours in Sikkim through the internet.

In recent past, we have seen mushrooming of online gambling games such as Rummy, Casino etc. where millions of people rush to test their fate. Since, the law does not adequately address the legality of online gambling, this remains a grey area which requires intervention on part of either legislature or judiciary. While in several Supreme Court decisions Rummy has not been held to be gambling, the clarity is still required when it comes to online casinos.

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Rummy has been held to be a game of skill similar to horse racing and is therefore legal in India. However, games like Casinos are a game of chance involving high monetary stakes which amounts to gambling as per Public Gaming Act of 1867. This inference is not difficult to draw as the issue that courts consider while deciding on gambling is whether a particular game is a ‘game of skill’ or a ‘game of chance’. Because of this uncertainty there is no organization that operates the online casino in India. So whether online Casinos are legal in India is the question that has a negative answer. However, indulging in online Casino games would not be considered to be illegal if the site is outside the jurisdiction of India. Due to the fact that the laws of India are not applicable to an overseas organization or gaming site, we continue to see an upsurge in the number of people engaging in this activity. Perhaps, the time is ripe for the Indian legislature and judiciary to end this conundrum and regulate the laws relating to online gambling.