Poker not a game of skill, it’s gambling: Bombay High Court

Source – dnaindia.com

The Bombay High Court has ruled the game of poker is not a game of ‘skill’ but one of ‘chance’, while refusing to quash a police complaint against a businessman who has been charged under various sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act.

A division bench of Justices RM Sawant and Sarang Kotwal said, “How can poker be a game of skill? You simply get the cards and open it, and if chance be, you will win.”

The court accordingly rejected the petition filed by Nasir Patel.

The bench further observed: “We have perused the description of the game, we find that it is not a game of skill but of pure chance. Prima facie we find that a case under the gambling act has been made out.”

Patel had moved the court, seeking to quash a case registered against 29 persons who were caught playing a game of poker during a police raid at an apartment in Goregaon. Dismissing the petition, the court also vacated the interim relief, restraining the police from filing a charge sheet in the case registered by them in 2016.

Patel’s petition, filed through advocate Ram Mani Upadhyay, stated: “The Karnataka High Court and other high courts have clearly held that poker is a game of skill and if the same is played without flouting any norms in accordance with law, it’s not an offense.” Thus the present case should be quashed and set aside.

The petition further added, “Prima facie there is no case to establish how a card game of poker, being played among friends, within the four walls of a private place could be gambling, until the same is not prohibited by any law.”

According to the Goregaon police, acting on a tip-off, they raided an apartment and found eight persons seated around two tables using coins to play a game of poker.

Police said that during his questioning, Patel said he was the cashier and was also operating the gambling den. Accordingly, police arrested 29 people, but the magistrate granted them bail.

The petition claimed that the police failed to consider there was no gambling and that it was just a private party with friends, and poker was being played for entertainment purposes only. Further, the police failed to consider that no license is required to play poker within private premises for entertainment and recreational purposes.