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The Madras High Court on Wednesday (February 26, 2025) refrained from passing any kind of interim order on a batch of cases questioning the restrictions imposed by the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) that real money games (RMG) could not be played without Aadhaar verification through OTP and between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. Indian Standard Time (IST).

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar said, they would prefer taking up the writ petitions, filed by a group of online gaming companies and an association of online gamers, for final disposal at the earliest than pass interim orders. They requested Advocate General P.S. Raman to ensure that a counter affidavit, on behalf of the State as well as the TNOGA, was filed within two weeks.

While Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Sajjan Poovayya represented the online gaming companies Play Games 24X7 Private Limited, Head Digital Works Private Limited, and Junglee Games India Private Limited, senior counsel V. Raghavachari represented E-Sports Players Welfare Association. The A-G argued for the State.

Aadhaar verification

The gaming companies had urged the court to declare as unconstitutional Section 5(2) read with 14(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act of 2022 since those provisions empowered the TNOGA to impose restrictions such as time, monetary, and age limits.

Since the TNOGA had exercised that power to frame the TNOGA (RMG) Regulations of 2025, the writ petitioners had insisted on declaring Regulation 4(iii) and 4(viii), which make Aadhaar verification mandatory for initial login and impose blank hours between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m., too as unconstitutional and illegal.

The petitioners had also sought a direction to the TNOGA to clarify Regulations 4(i), (ii) and (iv) to (vii), which deal with banning minors from playing RMG, making KYC verification mandatory, displaying pop-up caution messages regarding the addictive nature of the games, and fixing monetary limits for each player.

They further wanted the TNOGA to grant them sufficient time to implement the 2025 regulations, which had been published in the Tamil Nadu government gazette on February, after the authority clarified multiple doubts with respect to them.

Assailing the provisions, Mr. Rohatgi wondered how the TNOGA could insist only on Aadhaar verification when the KYC (Know Your Customer) process could be carried out through other identity documents such as driving licence, passport, and so on.

Blank hours

He questioned the authority of the TNOGA to impose a blanket ban on RMG between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. IST, thereby effectively prohibiting a player in India to engage with a player in the United States since the time difference between the two countries was 10 hours and 30 minutes.

When games of skill such as rummy and poker could be played physically in a club without any restriction on the timings, what purpose would it serve in banning the playing of such games online, he asked. Mr. Rohatgi also told the court that the business of online gaming companies would go for a toss if different States in the country imposed blank hours for different timings for playing RMG.

Mr. Raghavachari, representing the association of online game players, said, the Supreme Court as well as the High Court in a catena of decisions had held that rummy and poker were games of skill and that they were perfectly legal. He said, unreasonable restrictions could not be imposed on legally permitted acts.

He also contended that the mandatory insistence on undergoing Aadhaar OTP verfication for playing the RMG would violate the privacy of individuals and go against the Supreme Court’s verdict in K.S. Puttaswamy’s case.

The senior counsel also questioned the need for insisting upon displaying pop-up caution messages regarding the addictive nature of the game. He said, cigarette packets too carry caution messages regarding health hazards and yet, people had not stopped smoking them.

He argued that the State could impose a restriction on smoking in a public place but it could not prevent anyone from smoking at their residence at any time. Likewise, the TNOGA, being a State authority, could not impose a ban on playing online games from 12 midnight and 5 a.m., he said.

On the other hand, the A-G said, the blank hours had been fixed on the basis of an expert report, which states that youngsters get addicted to playing the RMG only between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. After hearing all sides, the Bench directed the Registry to list the cases after two weeks for filing of counter affidavits.