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One of the online gaming companies, on Thursday (March 27, 2025). told the Madras High Court it is willing to let individuals play real money games (RMG) for 19 hours a day, due to reported health concerns, but opposed Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority’s (TNOGA) insistence that the ‘blank hours’ should be imposed only between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. everyday.
Appearing before a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing Playgames 24X7 Private Limited, questioned the logic behind the requirement to impose blank hours only between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. and not during any other time though there were people who prefer to be active late at night.
The senior counsel primarily questioned the regulations imposed by TNOGA saying they were disproportionate and arbitrary. He wondered how a ban could be imposed on playing RMG alone between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. by citing health concerns when health could get spoilt even by playing any other game or by watching television during those hours.
Nevertheless, since the TNOGA was harping on safeguarding public health, Mr. Rohatgi, submitted his client was willing to prevent individual players from playing RMG for more than 19 hours a day if it was allowed to exercise the flexibility of imposing the five-hour blank period during any time of the day without restricting it to only between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. everyday.
He also said, the TNOGA could relax its insistence upon carrying out the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, for playing RMG, using Aadhaar OTP and permit the online gaming companies to carry out the verification even using other documents such as driving licence, passport and so on. He further said, the online gaming companies do not permit minors to play RMG and they had already fixed certain monetary limits too for playing RMG.
After Mr. Rohatgi completed his arguments on Thursday, the Division Bench was told that senior counsel Sajjan Poovayya would make his submissions for other online gaming companies. Senior counsel C. Aryama Sundaram was also expected to argue the matter before Advocate General P.S. Raman, assisted by Arvind Srevatsa, could respond to their arguments on behalf of the State as well as TNOGA.
Published – March 27, 2025 03:02 pm IST
