AHMEDABAD: The
Indian Poker Association (IPA) moved
Gujarat high court once again on Wednesday, challenging the city police commissioner’s decision to reject permission for poker to be played on the ground that it amounts to gambling.
A new poker room at a city-based hotel had asked the city police commissioner to grant permission to allow the game of poker. The police chief rejected the request on the grounds that poker is a game of chance and not skill and it hence it amounts to gambling.
IPA moved the court through its
advocate Maulin Pandya, who complained that the commissioner passed the order without giving reasons for arriving at the conclusion. He countered the commissioner’s decision on the grounds that various high courts and a couple of governments have permitted the game of poker to be played on the grounds that it involves an element of skill.
Advocate Pandya said that more than half-a-dozen petitions are pending before the high court, seeking directions to the city police commissioner, who was not taking a decision on applications for permission to run a poker room.
It was also argued that during the pendency of petitions, poker rooms continued to operate in the city and it was never claim by the police that the activity was illegal. The recent raids on poker rooms and booking of players under anti-gambling laws are nothing but intended to harass players when the high court is on vacation.
The HC has decided to hear the issue on May 22.
SG Road poker club operator used to run hookah bar
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Police raided a second poker club in less than a week on Tuesday. This one was on SG Road. Cash, mobile phones and cars all together worth more than Rs 57 lakh were seized and 26 people were detained. Police sources said the poker club was running from what was earlier a closed hookah bar on SG Road. Vastrapur police sources said
Sandeel Dang and
Wasim Rozani had started the club about a month and a half ago. “We have seized 530 chips of various denominations and cash from the counter,” said a senior police official. Police sources said Sandeel used to run a hookah bar, but after the crackdown them, he called in experts from Mumbai and opened a poker club. “We have inputs that youngsters are fast developing a habit of poker and this could be disastrous for the younger generation,” said a police official.
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