A Legal Analysis of State Gambling Laws in India

Abstract

One constitutional paradox in the gambling regulations in India is that the state regulatory authority over betting and gambling (Entry 34, State List) is within the spectrum of the fundamental rights guarantee Article 19(1) (g) and an emerging jurisprudential abstraction of games of skill and games of chance. Current study explores the constitutional principles governing Indian gambling law, the evolution of this law over historical times since the first policy as permissive-regulatory in ancient India and prohibitionist policies in British rule with divergent state-fundamental regulations, the dichotomy of skill and chance which has successfully been codified with landmark cases of the Supreme Court, statutory frameworks of central and state legislative policies, and the transformative effect of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025. By applying an analytical method to the Law Commission of India foundational Report No. 276 (2018) of the doctrine of res extra commercium as applied in State of Bombay v. R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala (1957) to the Internet-based gambling, modern judicial decisions regarding the regulation of online gambling, and emerging constitutional issues with the 2025 Act, currently awaiting final ruling by the Supreme Court, the paper concludes that the Indian gambling law has been re-formed to rely not on protection The paper shows that this change also poses significant constitutional concerns over the issue of Article 19(1)(g) violation, proportionality of restrictions and federalism principles, as modern regulatory scholarship suggests evidence-driven governance frameworks that impose protective measures in the form of regulation instead of categorical prohibition.