Casinos are banned in most parts of India including Maharashtra. But what about other games? Is online poker legal in Maharashtra? Let’s find out.
Is online poker legal in Maharashtra?
Yes, online legal in Maharashtra, as it is in most other parts of the country. Various Supreme Court judgments have tried to differentiate between games of skill and games of chance. And over the years, horse race betting, online Rummy, online Poker, and online fantasy gaming as `games of skill´ rather than `games of chance´, and exempting them from the ambit of existing gambling laws. So as of now, it is legal to play online poker in most parts of India including Maharashtra.
However, since the states are empowered by the constitution to form their own laws regarding gambling and betting, some states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana have recently passed laws banning most online gaming platforms, including real money Rummy, poker, and fantasy games. It is, therefore, illegal to play such games in these states.
Online poker sites in India
While card games like Teen Patti and Andar Bahar have been popular in India for a long time, the Indian gamblers were introduced to poker only a few decades back, especially after casinos were legalized in Goa. It is now one of the most popular table games in most casinos. To cash in on the growing popularity of poker, especially after the Supreme Court verdict giving it a legal status, various online poker platforms have come up. Some of the most popular ones include PokerBaazi, adda52, khelo365, 9stacks, and Spartan Poker.
Is online poker legal in Maharashtra? So much is the popularity of online and offline poker in India, that each year, a number of high profile poker tournaments in various casinos and online platforms, each with prize pools of lakhs and even crores of rupees.
