[1]Extending a winning hand to card-lovers, the Madras high court (HC) has held that rummy is a game of skill and playing it with or without stakes is just fine.
Justice S. Rajeswaran disposed of on Friday a petition by Mahalakshmi Cultural Association (MCA) to restrain police from interfering with its activities including playing 13-card games such as rummy.
The judge said rummy was not entirely a game of chance like three-card games and holding and discarding cards required considerable skill.
Therefore, MCA members and guests could not be faulted for playing it, he said, adding that rummy with stakes would not attract penal provisions.
Recording a submission of R.C. Paul Kanagaraj, counsel for the petitioner, that the association would conduct only legal and permissible activities and would play rummy alone, the judge said if there was evidence of gambling in some other way, police had a right to enter its premises, inspect it and take action as per law.
The judge said the Supreme Court had held that rummy was mainly a game of skill. Further, he said, it was common law that a person should not be convicted unless his or her conduct fell within the definition of a crime s/he had been charged with.
The petitioner only plays rummy with stakes, which cannot be called gambling, the judge said.
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