The Supreme Court on July 17, 2025, resumed hearings in the high-stakes online gaming GST dispute, with Day 15 of arguments in the Gameskraft batch of cases. The matter was heard by a division bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan.
Senior advocate, representing Winzo, continued his submissions on behalf of online gaming operators. He distinguished the concepts of betting and gambling, arguing that betting involves third parties staking money on an event, while gambling concerns players staking money on a game of chance. He contended that neither term applied to games of skill and therefore the 28% GST on the full bet amount was an incorrect application of tax law.
Citing domestic and English legal precedents, Singh reiterated that the government’s retrospective tax demands amounting to over ₹1 lakh crore on an industry with a turnover of only ₹8,000 crore were untenable. He also noted that online gaming was earlier taxed under the OIDAR (Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval) service category, and it was only after the 2023 amendments that “online money gaming” was separately classified. Singh argued this change in law could not justify retrospective taxation.
Another Senior advocate, then commenced arguments on behalf of listed casino operator Delta Corp. He challenged the government’s approach of taxing casinos on Gross Bet Value (GBV) rather than the globally accepted Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). According to him, this leads to an arbitrary and absurd outcome, as the GBV represents amounts never actually received by the casino.
He emphasized that Delta Corp and other operators have paid substantial amounts in license fees and taxes, and the GBV approach violates Article 14 of the Constitution. Singhvi illustrated how GGR-based taxation more accurately reflects actual income and called the department’s interpretation fiscally unrealistic.
The bench heard the arguments attentively and posted the matter for further hearing on July 18, with continued his submissions.
