This post explains a tax judgment that changed how courts talk about betting. It sits under our main guide, Is Satta King legal in India?, which covers the gambling laws themselves. In Hindi coverage the case is often called the ऑनलाइन गेमिंग जीएसटी फ़ैसला (online gaming GST ruling).
What the court decided
| Case | Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) v. Gameskraft Technologies |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2026 INSC 595 |
| Decided | 27 May 2026 |
| Bench | J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan JJ. |
| Outcome | GST is payable on the full face value of the stakes placed on online gaming and casino platforms, not only on the platform's fee |
The court's main conclusions:
- Full face value. GST applies to the whole amount staked.
- Actionable claims. The platforms are suppliers of "actionable claims", the legal category that betting and gambling fall into for GST.
- Retrospective. The 2023 amendments to the GST law (Schedule III and Rules 31B and 31C) were held to be "clarificatory … and consequently retrospective". They did not create a new tax from 2023; they explained what the law already meant.
We do not quote a GST rate here, because the rate is set by the GST law and its notifications, not by this judgment.
The "stakes" test, paragraph 84(i)
The most quoted part of the judgment is the court's own holding at paragraph 84(i):
"The character of betting and gambling does not depend exclusively upon whether the underlying activity is a game of skill or a game of chance, but upon the existence of stakes placed upon uncertain future contingencies."
In plain words: for GST, if money is staked on an outcome that is not yet known, that is betting or gambling, whether or not the game also involves skill. Older cases asked mainly whether a game was decided mainly by skill or by chance. This holding says that, for tax purposes, the stake matters more than that question.
Limits: a GST ruling, not a gambling-law ruling
- It is about tax. The holding is limited to the GST framework. It does not say that any game is legal or illegal under a state gambling law.
- It does not decide the Online Gaming Act challenge. Gaming companies' challenges to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 are a separate case. They are pending before the Supreme Court; no stay or interim relief has been granted (as of 25 October 2026), and on 5 August 2026 the court agreed to give them a final hearing.
- It does not overrule the older skill cases. Those cases decided what counts as "gambling" under gambling statutes and the Constitution. This one decided a tax question.
How it fits with older skill-vs-chance cases
| Case | What it held |
|---|---|
| R.M.D. Chamarbaugwalla v. Union of India (9 Apr 1957) | Gambling competitions get no protection as a trade under Article 19(1)(g); competitions involving substantial skill are business activities. |
| State of Bombay v. R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala (9 Apr 1957) | The Constitution's makers "could never have intended" betting and gambling to be treated as trade or business. |
| State of A.P. v. K. Satyanarayana (22 Nov 1967) | Rummy is "mainly and preponderantly a game of skill". |
| Dr. K.R. Lakshmanan v. State of T.N. (12 Jan 1996) | Horse racing is a game of skill; games that depend on a substantial degree of skill are not "gambling". |
| DGGI v. Gameskraft (27 May 2026) | For GST, betting and gambling turn on stakes placed on uncertain outcomes, not only on skill or chance. |
Parliament had already moved in the same direction. The Online Gaming Act 2025 defines an "online money game" as one played for stakes "irrespective of whether such game is based on skill, chance, or both". Our Online Gaming Act explainer covers that law.
What it means for number games
For satta games such as Gali, Desawar, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, the ruling changes little, because there was never a skill argument. A two-digit number is drawn and declared; no skill decides it. They are games of chance under the older tests, and they also involve stakes on an uncertain outcome under the new one. Offline satta remains illegal gambling under state laws, and online money games are banned under the 2025 Act.
This site publishes declared results and historical records only. Nothing in this judgment, or any other, makes satta a legal activity.