In response to multiple challenges to Tamil Nadu's Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, the state government, through Attorney General R. Shunmugasundaram, has filed a counter-petition.

The All India Gambling Federation (AIGF) and other online bookmakers had previously filed a plea as the new law prohibits them from operating online poker and rummy bo games, calling them games of chance.

The Act was implemented keeping in mind public order, public health, and betting and gambling as several news outlets in the state reported several cases of people committing suicide after losing money playing rummy online.

"The Tamil Nadu Legislature has enacted the controversial Act with the objective of correcting the public disorder caused by the uncontrolled spread of online gaming addiction and online gambling in the state," the government said, according to The Hindu.

Mental health is also considered as part of public health, hence the Act sets up an Online Gaming Authority to control online gaming.

Home Secretary P. Amudha said rummy and poker, when played in online format, can be considered as games based on chance rather than skill. Under the Act, the state government has the power to frame rules governing betting on skill-based and chance-based games.

The gambling industry has claimed that the Act is not in line with the Information Technology Rules, 2024, a contention the government has said is “unconvincing and untenable”. It has also said that the Act and the central guidelines for intermediaries can work together.

Under the Act, the Online Gaming Authority has the power to recommend state governments to take action against online bookmakers that violate the law. Another defence raised by the state is that if central legislation deals in essence and substance with a subject on the state list, then such a law should be considered illegal due to lack of legislative capacity.

In its submission, the state also denied any infringement of commercial rights under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, saying that companies cannot claim to be “citizens of India” to assert fundamental rights.

Even for companies that qualify as “citizens”, the state government has the power to impose reasonable restrictions, especially if there is a strong public interest behind the move. Further, the state government assured that the Act was framed by a committee headed by retired Madras High Court Justice K. Chandru, who was well aware of the harm caused by unrestricted access to these platforms.

According to the government, the above objectives cannot be achieved in any other way except regulating or banning gambling activities in the state.

“Regulating any entity operating on the internet is a complex matter and will involve disproportionate financial and human expenditure, which is not feasible for Tamil Nadu,” it said.

Further, the government also pointed out that the Rummybo Bill in no way overturns any Supreme Court judgment, saying that “the impugned Bill is a special legislation for online games and gambling and there is no authoritative legal statement to say whether any online game is a game of chance or skill”.

“It is impossible to measure whether the element of ‘skill’ is dominant in online games because the element of ‘chance’ in online games is not really an element of chance,” said Home Secretary P. Amudha. “Computers do not use physical devices to generate random results. Computers deploy a software called a random number generator (RNG).”

The government also provided the scale of the harm caused by online gaming addiction by listing all the people who committed suicide since 2023 due to losing money in online gambling. These include people from all walks of life.

"From the established facts, it is clear that the stakes involved in the online gaming business are huge, with several online gaming providers offering 'free bonuses' worth Rs 2,000-10,000 to lakhs of players through SMS to entice them into playing. It is reasonable to assume that no business would offer such large-scale bonuses unless it was confident of recovering the amounts," the report reads.