Payment for admission to entertainment excludes coin-operated play in free-entry parlours; entertainment tax was not payable.

Amounts inserted into video game machines in free-entry parlours did not constitute payment for admission to an entertainment under the Gujarat Entertainments Tax Act, 1977. The statutory charge applied only where a person paid to secure admission to an entertainment, or as a condition of attending or continuing to attend it. Here, no entry fee was charged, no show or performance was provided by the proprietors, and the coins merely activated the machine for play. The court therefore treated the amusement as arising from the player's own use of the machine, not from an entertainment provided by the proprietor, and held the proprietors not liable to entertainment tax.

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Issues: Whether the amounts inserted as coins in video game machines installed in parlours, where admission to the parlour was free and unrestricted, constituted "payment for admission to an entertainment" so as to attract entertainment tax under the Gujarat Entertainments Tax Act, 1977.

Analysis: The statutory scheme treated "entertainment" as an exhibition, performance, amusement, game or sport to which persons are admitted for payment, and "payment for admission" as payment made to secure admission to an entertainment or as a condition of attending or continuing to attend it. The charging provision fastened tax on payment for admission to entertainment, not on the money paid merely to operate a machine or on the subjective thrill derived by the player. The parlours did not charge anything for entry, no performance or show was offered by the proprietors, and the machine became operative only after the player inserted coins and activated it. The relevant concept was an objective entertainment provided by the proprietor, not the amusement a player might experience from his own play.

Conclusion: The coin insertion did not amount to payment for admission to an entertainment, and the proprietors were not liable to entertainment tax on the amounts inserted in the video game machines.

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