A bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and S.A. Bobde of Supreme Court while hearing an appeal challenging a Madras high court ruling that playing rummy with stakes amounts to gambling, said that the verdict will not impact online rummy websites.
Judgment came after a bunch of petitions filed by clubs and online rummy companies against the Madras High Court verdict that declared rummy for stakes as a form of gambling and hence illegal. However, the high courts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh found rummy as a game of skill and said it was not illegal. It was in the wake of this divergent view that the clubs as well as online companies approached the apex court.
Supreme Court while putting rummy websites out of the ambit of its scrutiny and chose to concentrate on legality of table rummy played in clubs. These games would come under the ambit of gambling and thus illegal only if it is held that they involve chance and no skill.