Generally speaking, No, betting gambling is not legal in India for the most part. But since there are some games that require skills to be able to predict the result, that’s why some online and offline games get away with it and aren’t generally considered illegal.
What Exactly Is Considered Gambling and Betting?
So gambling is like the stuff you do when you take some cash out of your pocket and risk it on something that mostly depends on luck, simple as that. So you could either win or lose cash depending on something as unpredictable as a result of a game. But betting is the part of gambling that deals with predicting results, like the one of a cricket match and putting money on your predictions. If you guess correctly, you get cash, otherwise, you lose it. That’s how it is.
What Laws Are In Place Regarding Betting Gambling In India?
The first law governing gambling practices in India is the Public Gambling Act of 1867. This is the very Act that defines mainly the physical gambling activities, that is, entering or running a gambling house, and renders such activities public ones illegal. But the fact that we should acknowledge is that gambling regulation is a state problem, India is not an exception, and every state can set its own gambling laws. This brings us to a lot of contrasting approaches to gambling law right here in the country.
Moreover, in the legal scene, games are grouped into two types: games of skill and games of chance. Games of skill are activities where participants use their knowledge and skills (for example, rummy or horse racing) to victory whereas Games of pure chance, such as backward tosses, are mainly forbidden and illegal.
And What About Online Gambling?
Online gambling is still a bit of an area of uncertainty in India, like you might have seen that some online apps and websites are promoting games or practices that appear to be gambling or betting but they present it like there are some kind of skills involved, and that’s the reason they get away with it so easily. The old Indian law, the Public Gambling Act of 1867, is silent on the matter, and no proper legislation has been passed. As a result, online gambling, while alive and kicking, is not 100% legal and safe. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has attempted to restrict online gambling by preventing financial transactions from and to betting websites, and many offshore gambling sites are successfully put on the blacklist in India.
