What the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act says

The Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act began as the Bombay Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887, Bombay Act IV of 1887. It is the state law associated with action against matka dens in Maharashtra, including the cities where Kalyan and Worli draws were later described. This page quotes the Government of Maharashtra print. It does not turn those sections into advice about any reader's own conduct.

What is this Act?

India Code's catalogue, handle 123456789/19823, lists Act 4 of 1887, enacted 5 Jan 1888. Its section pages did not load on 10 Nov 2026, so the quotations are from the Law and Judiciary Department print as modified up to 28 January 2019. A later amendment, if any, has to be read there. This page does not call the 2019 print the last word.

How do section 4 and section 5 differ?

Section 4 is the house: opening or keeping it, an owner who permits it, a manager, or someone who advances money for the gaming. The maximum is two years, the minimums are in the table, and sub-section (2) shuts out the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958.

Section 5 is about the person found there. Whoever is found in any common gaming-house gaming or present for the purpose of gaming shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months and may also be punished with fine, with the lower minimums in the table. The next sentence says any person found in a common gaming-house during any gaming shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been there for the purpose of gaming. That presumption is the Act's, and a court applies it. This page does not.

What do gaming and a common gaming-house mean in section 3?

Section 3 says gaming includes wagering or betting, with a narrow exception for some licensed horse-race and dog-race betting, and that a lottery is not included. Collecting bets, or an act intended to aid betting, is deemed gaming. A common gaming-house, for gaming on digits, cards, an uncertain event or a draw, is any house, room or place where that gaming happens or where the instruments are kept. Place includes a tent, enclosure, space, vehicle and vessel. The print does not say 'app'.

What does section 12A cover?

The print says a police officer may apprehend without warrant any person who prints, publishes, sells, distributes or in any manner circulates any newspaper, news-sheet or other document or any news or information with the intention of aiding or facilitating gaming. On conviction that person is punishable in the manner and to the extent referred to in section 4. The officer may enter and search and seize things reasonably suspected to be used or intended to be used for that offence. The intention is part of the sentence. This page explains the section. It does not decide whether a results archive, a chart, or this website meets that intention. The editorial guide says this desk publishes records and does not sell a number to play. That description is not a legal opinion.

How have police reports described recent matka raids?

Prime Time 24, in a report timestamped 9 Nov 2026 at 4:05 PM, said Uruli Kanchan police in Haveli taluka, Pune district, raided a Kalyan Close matka spot at Bazaar Maidan on the evening of Monday, 2 Nov 2026, at about 6:45 PM. The paper said two men were detained, four people were booked, and cash of ₹920 and a slip book were seized. This page does not name the people the paper named.

Pudhari, published 6 Nov 2026, said a team sent by the Nanded-range Deputy Inspector General raided two spots in Latur on 4 Nov 2026. The paper said 13 people were booked, and that ₹24,230 in cash and nine mobiles were seized, with the muddemal valued at ₹1,00,230. It did not, in the text opened here, name the Act section on the FIR. A raid report is the paper's account of police action. It is not a conviction. The Kalyan market page is a results record. The Mumbai history is about how newspapers dated the old draws. Neither is a guide to running a den.

Does this Act say online gambling is legal in Maharashtra?

The print opened here does not use the word online, and it does not say that an app is lawful. It also does not, in the sections quoted, create a separate internet offence. For offering an online money game, the text to read is the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, in force from 1 May 2026, in the Act explainer. State law and that Act can both matter. The India legal guide keeps them apart. Section 13 of the Maharashtra print says nothing in the Act applies to a game of mere skill wherever played. That sentence does not decide that matka is mere skill.

A bare-act PDF of the state print is the Law and Judiciary Department file linked in Sources. The India Code catalogue is the official index. Charts of past lines, including the chart index and the glossary, are records of words and numbers. They are not a stake.

1. Open the India Code catalogue entry for the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act and note the Act number and year.
2. Open the Law and Judiciary Department print and read sections 3, 4, 5, 12 and 12A, including the footnotes for later amendments.
3. Check whether a statute after 28 January 2019 has amended the section you are reading. This page did not find that later text.
4. If the question is an online app, read the 2025 Act explainer as well. Do not treat one sentence from 1887 as the whole answer.