India’s Supreme Court Dismisses 10 Review Pleas Over State Online Gaming Bans

India’s Supreme Court has rejected ten petitions challenging its earlier ruling on online gaming restrictions, confirming that Tamil Nadu and Karnataka can prohibit games played for money, including those primarily based on skill.

India’s Supreme Court has dismissed ten review petitions filed by online gaming companies and industry associations seeking to overturn a landmark judgment that upheld state-level restrictions on real-money gaming.

The decision was issued on October 15, 2026, and made public on October 26. A bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan rejected the petitions without holding an open-court hearing, finding no grounds to reconsider its earlier ruling.

The applications were led by Junglee Games India, with other industry participants including Play Games24x7, Head Digital Works and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports.

The petitions challenged the Supreme Court’s May 27 judgment, which overturned earlier High Court decisions invalidating gambling restrictions introduced in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

In that judgment, the court confirmed that states have the constitutional authority to regulate or prohibit betting on online games, even when the outcome depends predominantly on skill.

The ruling affects real-money versions of games such as rummy and poker, rejecting the argument that their skill-based nature automatically protects them from gambling restrictions.

By dismissing the review petitions, the Supreme Court has left its May judgment unchanged. Operators could still pursue the exceptional curative petition procedure, although such applications face a substantially higher legal threshold.

A separate constitutional challenge to India's nationwide Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, remains pending before a different Supreme Court bench.

The latest decision strengthens the legal position of state-level restrictions and narrows the options available to gaming companies seeking to challenge them. It also reinforces the importance of regulatory compliance for businesses operating in India's evolving digital gaming market.