Cleared – mani
Chennai: Madras high court on Wednesday refused to pass an interim stay against the operation of a state govt order mandating Aadhaar-based verification for playing real money online games in the state. The rule also imposed time restrictions for playing the games from 12 am to 5 am.
A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekhar instead directed the Union and the state govts to file their responses in two weeks. The court passed the order on a batch of pleas moved by gaming platforms – Play Games 24×7 Private Limited, Head Digital Works Private Limited, Junglee Games India Private Limited – and others.
According to the companies, the state govt brought in the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Activity (Real Money Games) Regulations, 2025. Regulation 4 (i) of the provision prohibits minors under 18 years from playing the games, while 4 (iii) provides for mandatory registration of know your client (KYC) with an Aadhaar number for opening an initial gaming account, they said. They further pointed out that the rule also provides for prohibiting playing the games between 12 am and 5 am.
The companies challenged the legality of the regulations since the Union already put in place such measures through the Information Technology Act and the Rules. “The regulations provide for compulsory pop-up caution alerts every thirty minutes after the first hour of play, setting daily, weekly, and monthly monetary limits for playing the games and the connected alert message; and a mandatory display of caution alert of ‘online game is addictive,'” the petitioners alleged.
The TN govt submitted that the state is well within its rights to bring in the regulations to protect vulnerable persons facing financial and psychological risks. The time restriction was based on the report received from experts who found the maximum time of addiction among the youth is from midnight to early morning, he added.
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