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While online gambling of any kind is illegal in India, the handful of Rummy sites that allow you to play for cash are not flouting the law. This is because a Supreme Court ruling of 1967 (State of Andhra Pradesh vs K. Satyanarayan) states that Rummy cannot be called a "game of entire chance" and "is mainly and preponderantly a game of skill".Websites like Games24x7.com and Ace2three.com allow players to play Rummy for free as well as for cash stakes. Games24x7 is basically a multi-player format with cash stakes of between Rs 25 and Rs 1,250 per match and regular tournaments where players can win larger sums. Ace2three, on the other hand, has a point-based tournament format with the website trying to "re-create the offline table online". The Games24x7 site flaunts its biggest winners on its front page, putting player "sjey7203" at the top with an overall earning of Rs 20,900.73.The sites, however, take a service charge from the players. Games24x7, for instance, charges 15 per cent on cash games, which means a player winning a two-game match of Rs 25 takes home a maximum of Rs 42.50, the rest going to the company as service charge. The service charge is between 10 and 15 per cent in the case of Ace2three.Players who want to play for money can transfer cash to their account in the websites from credit cards or through Internet banking, with all top Indian banks listed on the secured payment gateways. Players can get their winning amount sent to them as cheques.Games24x7 has over one lakh users by some estimates, while Ace2three has nearly 40,000 players. "We are doing very well on our player volumes for a young start-up. We have a few thousand monthly players. However, most of them play for free and so we are now exploring advertising as well as a source of revenue," says Trivikraman Thampy, founder & CEO of Games24x7.Deepak Gullapalli, founder & CEO of Hyderabad-based Ace2three, says only about 15 per cent of his total traffic is for cash games. "Our USP is that we re-create a regular Rummy table with at least six players and point-based tournaments. We also have larger tournaments with 450-500 players which are very popular," he adds. Both companies, however, refuse to disclose their total turnover.But what Thampy and Gullapalli do disclose through their websites is that it is legal to play Rummy for money in India. Both websites quote the 1967 Supreme Court order to prove their point. "We have not had any legal issues. The law in most states is unequivocal in its exemption to games of skill. The clarification is simply to inform our customers about the law, which is not that well known among the public," says Thampy.There is, however, a catch. The Games24x7 website makes it clear that players from Assam, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are prohibited from playing cash tournaments "as the law in these five states is unclear on playing games of skill for cash prizes". Thampy, who has based his company out of Mumbai, says his website "gets players' addresses and uses that information to keep them from playing for prizes in those states where the legal issues are somewhat unclear". Gullapalli says his website does not allow players from these states to buy cash chips, nor do they send winners cheques to anyone with addresses in these states.Thampy thinks there is a sizable market for games of skill in India. "We plan to stay focused on Rummy for some time. We may also introduce chess and bridge at a later date," he adds.Salman Waris, head of technology practice at the legal firm FoxMandal Little, has studied online gaming and the laws governing it. He explains how online Rummy is legal.• Rummy is legal in India, but is charging a service charge on cash games also legal?The Public Gambling Act of 1867 explicitly excludes games of "mere skill" from the prohibition. The Supreme Court has held that when a game relies on the element of skill, it cannot be a game of mere chance, and must therefore be analysed to determine whether chance or skill predominates. Besides, further case law has shown that the accepted interpretation of whether an activity is gambling or not depends on whether money is at stake, and whether the activity involves a preponderance of chance over skill. It is also pertinent to note here that in State of Andhra Pradesh vs K. Satyanarayan (1967), the Supreme Court determined that a private club which charged members for playing Rummy was not a gambling house. • Do states have different rules on Rummy?The term "gaming", as has been defined by various state legislations in Delhi, Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, does not specifically either exclude or include Rummy within the ambit of the activity. Therefore, the game carries the risk of being analysed and is open to interpretation of the courts in India.As per the provisions of West Bengal Gambling and Competitions Act, 1957, Rummy, being a "game of card", may not fall within the definition of "gaming" as defined under Section 2 of the said Act which specifically excludes "games of card" like Bridge, Poker, Rummy or Nap. Similarly, Sikkim passed the Online Gaming (Regulation) Act in 2008 specifically allowing gambling and cards games.• What does the IT Act say about online gambling?The Information Technology Act has no provision specifically dealing with online gambling. However, under the existing Indian Information Technology Act 2008, there are certain provisions that may be indirectly applicable to online betting/ gambling. Hence, any online venture that involves betting, gambling or any games that can be described as primarily relying on chance will run the risk of regulation through India's Information Technology Act 2008.The Act does not specifically mention gaming, but it does consider an offence making available "any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it". When this provision is read with the provisions of the Public Gambling Act, a website offering "online gaming services" runs the risk of being considered corruptive material under the Public Gambling Act and hence both the website as well as the service provider may be punishable under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
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