Hi... This is Shri Tejaa.
Well Every body have seen many times playing cards at home, clubs and in Movies.. People who dont know and eager to know about the basics of Rummy can learn from this Blog.
Before Getting in to details..
Is Rummy Legal in India??
"Rummy is Game of Skill"
Rummy is not a game entirely of chance like the 'three-card' game. It requires certain amount of skill because the fall of the cards has to be memories and the building up of Rummy requires considerable skill in holding and discarding cards. It is mainly and preponderantly a game of skill. The chance in Rummy is of the same character as the chance in a deal at a game of bridge. In fact in all games in which cards are shuffled and dealt out, there is an element of chance, because the distribution of the cards is not according pattern but is dependent upon how the cards find their place in the shuffled pack. From this alone it cannot be said that Rummy is a game of chance and there is no. skill involved in it of course, if there is evidence of gambling in some other way or 387 388 the owner of the house or club is making a profit or gain from the game of Rummy or any other game played for stakes, the offence may be brought home.
The 13-card games like Rummy is a game of skill, and not gambling or game of chance, the Madras High Court has held, adding that police should not disturb club members and guests playing the game.
Justice S Rajeswaran, relying on a Supreme Court order of 1968 vintage, said: "The game of Rummy is mainly and predominantly a game of skill."
Passing orders on a writ petition filed by the T Nagar-based Mahalakshmi Cultural Association and concurring with the submissions of its counsel R C Paul Kanagaraj, the judge said that so long as the club members and guests played the lawful game of rummy, the police should not disturb the peace and harmony of the association under the guise of inspection.
He, however, made it clear that the petitioner-association should not indulge in any activity other than Rummy and that it should not prevent police from doing its duty.
It all started when the T Nagar police raided the association on August 10, and arrested 56 members/guests for playing a three-card game called 'Mangaatha'.
Paul Kanagaraj, however, said the 30-year-old association never allowed any card game other than the 13-card Rummy and playing Rummy with or without stakes was not illegal. Denying that Mangaatha was played by its members/guests, counsel said police frequently disturbed the association under the guise of regular inspection.
Police claimed to have recovered 178 tokens and a case of Rs 6.75 lakh used for the gambling.
Insisting that it was only a gambling activity, police said the persons picked up by them were not members of the association. Noting that they entered premises after information, police said it had the right to enter the campus where illegal activities had been reported. It said special teams had been formed for tracking down illegal card games in the city.
However, Justice Rajeswaran, in his order, referred to an apex court ruling delivered in 1968 stating: "The game of rummy is not a game entirely of chance like the 'three-card' game. The 'three-card' game, which goes under different names such as 'flush', 'brag', etc is a game of pure chance. Rummy, on the other hand, requires certain amount of skill because the fall of the card has to be memorized and the building up of Rummy requires considerable skill in holding and discarding cards."
The judge then cautioned the petitioner-association that only 13-card Rummy is permitted on its premises and that it should not obstruct the law enforcing agency from doing its duty if any illegal card game is played in the association premises.
Madras High Court ban
Trouble started brewing after the Madras High Court prohibited a Chennai club from playing rummy for stakes and from making a profit out of it. While the Supreme Court stayed the High Court decision, after an appeal by the club, it will soon give its verdict on whether games of skill can be played for stakes or whether profit can be made from such games.
Playing games of chance with stakes, or gambling, is generally defined under state laws as an activity that includes chance, a monetary prize, and “consideration,” which means one must pay to play. Remove any one of these three and it becomes legal in most States.
Dominant factor
But how much chance has to be removed to make a game legal? “The question is whether chance is a dominant factor in the game,” says Venkateswara Rao, an advocate who represented the Chennai club, pointing out that rummy was declared a game of skill by a 1967 Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court’s actions have put a spotlight on an online rummy industry, estimated by owners of card gaming websites at Rs. 200 crore-250 crore, which has become a vocation for thousands of Indians and a pastime for lakhs of casual players.
As an industry, online card websites have obvious profit potential. While casinos across the world pour millions into hotels, websites require not one per cent of that. While online playing may lack a certain pizazz, websites make up for inconvenience, as players can play a quick round before hitting the sack.
Most big players such as Games24X7 or Ace2three, with player bases of over 5 lakh, make their money by charging a service fee on cash games — ranging anywhere between 5 and 15 per cent. Presently there are over a dozen online rummy websites which offer both free and cash stakes variants of the game that are now in danger of being shut down.
Supreme Court decision crucial
“You know, the fallout from the pending decision just becomes a very fundamental thing, it is either legal or it is not. If it is illegal, then most sites would have to close. Companies such as ours would come to a grinding halt,” said Kiran Kumar, Business Development Manager, Taashtime, a rummy website which sees over 25,000 games played on a daily basis. Taashtime employs over 60 people in its Hyderabad office.
The worst-case scenario for these nascent businesses unfortunately becomes the most murkiest — moving their servers out of the country if the Supreme Court does not uphold the legality of games of skill being played for stakes.
“A lot of websites might want to do that, those of us who have a lot more to lose will have to move their servers abroad, which could lead to a lot of legally-grey situations,” said Mr. Kumar.
Deepak Gullapalli, CEO, Head Infotech Private Ltd, which runs Ace2three.com believes that alternative, although less-profitable, revenue models will be have to looked at.
“While the Madras High Court judgment came as something of a surprise to us, we are hoping that the Supreme Court decision comes through favorably. In the meanwhile if cash stakes cannot be a source of revenue, we will have to look at advertisements and mobile app sales,” said Mr. Gullapalli.
For Mr. Ganesh, the potential crackdown is likely to bring a new career path and a new schedule. “I was joking around with my family, ‘I guess I now have to go out and get a new hobby to while away time over the weekends’,” he said.
