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5 NUJS L. Rev. 93 (2012)
Legality of Poker and Other Games of Skill: A Critical Analysis of India's Gaming Laws

handle is hein.journals/nujslr5 and id is 101 raw text is: LEGALITY OF POKER AND OTHER GAMES OF SKILL: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF INDIA'S GAMING LAWS Jay Sayta* Gambling and wagers have always enthralled people ever since the begin- ning of civilisation. Instances of gambling can be found in the iMahabharata, Quran and other religious texts. The law and the judiciary, in modern times, have looked at card games as a pernicious and immoral activity. In the last two centuries, sophisticated card games involving a great degree of skill and intellect have become highlv popular among the masses. The laws regulating and prohibiting gambling, however, remain ambiguous and archaic. This paper analyses the laws prohibiting gambling in India and discusses the legality of card games involving a substantial degree of skill in the light of international discourse and analysis about the game ofpoker. I. INTRODUCTION Money won is twice as sweet as money earned. From the movie 'The Color of Money' For thousands of years people have been enthralled by games of chance and probability. Even in the Mahabharata,' the addiction of gambling has been explained in the part where Yudhishtira, the king of dharma loses eve- rything, including his brothers and wife to his estranged cousin Duryodhana in a die game.2 With the passage of time, the types of wagers have changed from the crude die games and betting on animal fights to sophisticated card games like poker, blackjack, flash, bingo, jackpot, lottery, trade in differences on commodities, stock market speculation, betting on horse-racing and other sports, etc. Gambling and betting activities have enjoyed enormous popular- ity amongst Indians. A report by KPMG has estimated India's overall gaming market (most of which is illegal and unaccounted) to be worth Rs. 2,50,000 2 year student, the W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. An epic considered to be a holy book by Hindus. CHATURVEDI BADRINATIH, THE MAHABHAR4IA-AN INQUIRY IN THE HUMAN CONDITION 142 (2006).