India Supreme Court Rejects Junglee Review Pleas On Gaming Bans
India's Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of review petitions led by Junglee Games India, leaving in place its May 27, 2026 judgment that upheld Tamil Nadu and Karnataka laws banning online games played for stakes.
The order, signed on October 15, 2026, was reported in the press on October 26. It follows our earlier coverage of prediction markets facing a global squeeze as India tightened its rules.
A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan found no merit in the petitions after reading the review papers.
The court order also condoned the delay in filing and rejected requests for an oral hearing, so the petitions were decided on the papers alone.
What The Court Decided
The case is recorded as R.P. (C) No. 10491/2026 in Civil Appeal No. 6124/2023, Junglee Games India Private Limited, against the State of Tamil Nadu and others.
Several connected review petitions from other gaming companies were disposed of in the same order, along with any pending interim applications.
Dismissal means the original ruling stands as it was handed down. In that May judgment, reported by The Economic Times, the court held that once money is staked on a game, it constitutes gambling, regardless of the level of skill involved.
It described betting and gambling as activities outside commerce, so no fundamental right to carry them on can be claimed.
The judges also said states can act on public order grounds when online casinos cause harm, and that the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka laws were supported by empirical data.
That reversed the earlier decisions of the Madras High Court, which had struck down the Tamil Nadu amendment, and the Karnataka High Court, which had quashed the Karnataka ban.
Who Was Behind The Challenge
The review petitions came from the same skill-gaming group that backed the High Court wins.
Junglee Games, Games24x7 and Head Digital Works, along with the All India Gaming Federation and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports, argued that games of skill are a separate class from games of chance and fall outside state powers.
Junglee is part of Flutter Entertainment. When India passed its national online gaming law, Flutter said in a company statement that it had stopped real-money operations in the country from August 22, 2025.
It said India was expected to contribute about $200 million in revenue and $50 million in Adjusted EBITDA in 2025, and that Junglee employed more than 1,100 people.
The latest order therefore does not change Flutter's day-to-day position in India. Its practical effect is to close off one route to restoring state-level protection for skill-based real-money games, a route the industry had pursued since the 2021 amendments.
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The National Law Sits Alongside State Bans
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act received Presidential assent on August 22, 2025.
According to the government's Press Information Bureau summary, it applies across India and to online money gaming offered from outside the country, while recognising e-sports as a legitimate competitive sport.
For background on Flutter's Indian business, see our earlier report on Flutter Entertainment India naming a new general manager.
For licensed options elsewhere, our casino bonuses guide covers regulated markets.
With the review route closed, the order itself indicates no further steps in these proceedings, so attention turns to how national law and state bans are applied in practice.
