Are there laws or regulations prohibiting a person in India from
playing real-money poker on an online poker site like
www.PartyPoker.com?

Does this vary for citizens or visitors? 

Does this vary by region or state?

If illegal, what are the potential and likely punishments?

If illegal, has anyone in India ever been charged, prosecuted,
penalized, fined or jailed for playing online poker?

In what part of the country is prosecution for playing online poker most unlikely?

Hi, 

Goa is the only state to have legalized casinos. 

The state now has six casinos, among them the offshore Caravela. 

Casinos and gambling in general remains largely frowned upon by Indian
society although there are some who want to see this changed.

However, I find nothing that states online gambling in India is
illegal for the player. I've been through most of the newspapers (back
several years) and several government sites, finding nothing that
states the player is at risk of breaking current law.

The company you mentioned, www.PartyPoker.com, in fact has a tax
paying base in India with over 900 employees, as well as in Gibraltar.

India has been very slow to put out regulations regarding the Internet
since their first one in 2000.


Links of Interest

Directory of official websites of Government of India
http://goidirectory.nic.in/

The Poker Face
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1441390,00.html

Partygaming Shows its hand
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/20/ccgaming20.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/20/ixcoms.html

NASSCOM (India's National Association of Software and Service
Companies) Requires IE to view it
http://www.nasscom.org
http://www.nasscom.org/download/CyberLaw.pdf

Online Gambling Article
http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/onlinegamingarticle.cfm

Tabcorp Looks to Expand into India
http://www.scoblete.com/Article.cfm?ArticleId=56015&CategoryName=Headline&SubCategoryName=News

Commentary on India's  Cyber Law of 2000 
http://cyberlaws.net/cyberindia/india.htm
http://cyberlaws.net/cyberindia/archives.htm


thanks, 

webadept-ga

This may be of interest:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=294632

Here in the UK, it is widely believed that 'The Indian Bookies' fix
many major cricket results, including International matches.

So, whether frowned upon or not, betting seems to exist.

Great question!