The Chhattisgarh High Court has issued an interim ruling to SportsBaazi and Probo that allows the two online real money gaming platforms to operate across the country while directing them to restrict access within the state.
In April, the High Court sought responses from Union and state governments on a PIL seeking action against money gaming websites “operating illegally in the state”.
Hearing writ petitions filed by SBN Gaming Network Pvt. Ltd. (operator of SportsBaazi) and Probo Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the court took note of the petitioners’ submissions that their platforms host only “Games of Skill” — such as rummy and prediction-based trading — and are legally recognized under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021.
The petitions were filed following a blocking order, dated May 5, which was issued by the Chhattisgarh police to all internet and telecom service providers under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, alleging these websites were “engaged in online gambling”. The order mandated immediate blocking of the websites sportsbaazi.com, probo.in, and tradexapp.co across India, “citing public interest and financial harm to citizens”.
Per gaming news platform G2G, the petitioners contended that the applications involved user-versus-user skill competitions and had never been found illegal by any court of law. They further emphasized that the apps followed robust KYC protocols and regulatory compliance.
They relied on landmark rulings — K. Satyanarayana v. State of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. K.R. Lakshmanan v. State of Tamil Nadu, and Shreya Singhal v. Union of India — to establish the legal sanctity of skill-based gaming.
The Court observed that the distinction between “Games of Skill” and “Games of Chance” is well settled and noted that skill games fall within the Union List, whereas gambling is under the State List. Therefore, the State of Chhattisgarh lacked jurisdiction to block access beyond its territory.
In light of the submissions, Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad held that the blocking order was prima facie beyond jurisdiction and directed both platforms to geo-block their apps and websites only within Chhattisgarh till further orders. The petitioners are permitted to continue operations in the rest of India.
