The Supreme Court ruling
In 1968, the Supreme Court of India ruled in State of Andhra Pradesh v. K. Satyanarayana that rummy is a game of skill because the discard pile, the open meld and the close decision all rest on player judgement, not chance. The skill component is what kept the format legal under the Public Gambling Act of 1867, which excludes "games of skill" from its definition of gambling. The ruling has been cited in subsequent decisions and is treated as the load-bearing precedent on the legal status of rummy in India.
The Public Gambling Act
The Public Gambling Act of 1867 is a central framework; it is a short statute that defines "common gaming house" and "gaming" and leaves the substantive regulation to state-level rules. The 2025 framework on online gaming, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, added federal-level rules for online real-money gaming, with the MeitY notifications and the state-level implementations still being finalised at the time of writing.
State-by-state reading
The desk publishes a state-by-state reading in the table below. The reading is current as of the date here; the desk re-checks the reading every quarter or whenever a state-level rule changes. The desk is not a legal adviser; the reading is a reading resource.
| State | Real-money rummy | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Assam | Prohibited | State-level prohibition |
| Bihar | Prohibited | State-level prohibition |
| Delhi | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| Goa | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| Gujarat | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Karnataka | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Kerala | Prohibited | State-level prohibition |
| Madhya Pradesh | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| Maharashtra | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| Odisha | Prohibited | State-level prohibition |
| Punjab | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Rajasthan | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| Tamil Nadu | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Telangana | Restricted | State-level restrictions; check the current rules |
| Uttar Pradesh | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |
| West Bengal | Allowed | Skill-game carve-out applies |