Turfbets.com to give Indians punting service on international racing

Horse racing punters in India will soon get a new gambling site as RummyCircle, operator of the leading rummy portal in the country, is set to venture into gambling operations.

Play Games 24×7 is a private company based in Mumbai that is the leading exponent of online rummy, but now they are expected to offer betting on international horse racing.

The new website, Turfbets.com is designed to give punters in India a top-notch horse racing betting experience.

Punter will have the opportunity to bet on races from the US, UK and France using the website. The site can also stream numerous races each day through its exclusive video player.

In addition, Turfbets.com is capable of allowing users to wager on live races and offer live-video streaming, the historical data of each horse and other relevant statistics associated with the race.

The site will initially be opened to a closed group of about 1000 people in few days and if everything goes as scheduled, it will then be rolled out to a larger number of customers.

The new site, however, comes with some restrictions. Residents of Indian states Telangana, Odisha, and Assam will not be allowed to use the website as laws in those areas prohibit any form of games of skill involving money.

Nonetheless, it is expected that other states will honour their laws and offer punters the opportunity to wager with the website. The website is aiming to take advantage of a loophole created in 1996 when the Supreme Court ruled in the Dr KR Lakhsmanan v State of Tamil Nadu case that horse racing, just like rummy, is a game of skill. Therefore, wagering on horse events cannot be defined as a form of gambling.
Rummy has since 1968 been classified legal in India.

This view of the law may change after the new site goes live. The government may later find it prudent to classify betting on horse races as a form of gambling and that may result in shutting down the site.

Since its inception by Play Games in 2008, RummyCircle currently has more than two million registered players and records about 500 million player interactions every month, which makes it the largest rummy portal in India.