India: Gujarat HC rejects Petition for permitting Poker & Rummy at Club

November 21, 2017

Source: casinoscapital.com and gujarathighcourt.nic.in

The Gujarat High Court, on Friday i.e. November 17, 2017 turned down a Petition, “Special Criminal Application No. 3900 of 2017” seeking directions to the authorities concerned to permit the games of Poker and Rummy at a city club.

The Petition was filed by Mr. Samit Bharatbhai Patel (hereinafter referred to as the “Petitioner”) seeking the Court’s intervention on the ground that card games like poker and rummy are skill-based games and do not amount to gambling.

The Petitioner requested the Hon’ble Court to direct the Police or Department of Sports and Culture to issue a ‘No Objection Certificate’ or a license for his club so that it could run a poker room. The Petitioner sought non-interference from the Police in conducting card games at his club arguing that skill based games were being organized in a peaceful manner and there was no illegality involved in it.

Justice JB Pardiwala while stating that “No case worth the name is made out. Rejected”, dismissed the Petition at the admission stage itself after hearing the prayer of the Petitioner.

Whereas, many other Petitions were filed earlier this year by different Petitioners arguing that Poker is a game of skill and not of chance and a declaration in this regard has been made by many other High Courts, but no permission was granted as all the petitions were in the form of criminal applications.

A separate bench of the Gujarat High Court headed by Justice Rajesh Shukla is expected to deliver its verdict on
November 23, 2017, on the legality of poker and degree of skill involved in the game in response to special civil applications filed by Mr. KN Suresh (on behalf of the Indian Poker Association), AAA Gaming, Hotel Ramada, Dominance Games Pvt. Ltd. and other poker clubs.

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