JOIN USKarnataka HC clubs all petitions against online gaming ban, to hear them on October 27
The High Court of Karnataka has clubbed all petitions against the ban on online gaming and listed them for hearing on October 27.
The latest petition has been filed by the All India Gaming Federation, challenging the amendment to the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, which prohibits and criminalises games of skill, including online games, by risking money or otherwise.
Justice Krishna S Dixit directed the matter to be listed with five other similar matters on October 27.
The petitioners argue that the amended act violates the doctrine of proportionality. Online gaming is covered under Entry 31 of List I in Schedule VII of the Constitution of India, and in terms of Article 246, only Parliament has the competence to legislate.
The petitioners contend that poker, chess, rummy, fantasy sports (fantasy cricket, football and basketball), casual games and e-sports are all games of skill and have been determined thus by various courts. Though some games involve risking money, none involve wagering or gambling. Games of skill did not fall foul of the Police Act, prior to the introduction of the amendment, they state.
The petitioners further state that there are over 400 start-ups in India, together valued at $885 million, in the online gaming space. Seventy-one of them are registered in Bengaluru alone. The sector is projected to create around 40,000 new jobs by 2022, they stated.
“That games of skill have been recognised to be one in which success depends principally upon superior knowledge, training, attention, experience and adroitness of the player. It is submitted that the courts have reasoned that there are few games, if any, which consist purely of chance or skill, and as such, a game of chance is one in which the element of chance predominates over the element of skill, and a game of skill is one in which the element of skill predominates over the element of chance,” the petition reads.