India’s planned regulation of online gaming will apply to all real-money games after the Prime Minister’s Office overruled a proposal to regulate only games of skill and leave out games of chance, Reuters has reported.
The much-awaited regulations are seen shaping the future of India’s gaming sector that research firm Redseeer estimates will be worth $7 billion by 2026, dominated by real-money games. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have in recent years backed Indian startups Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, popular for fantasy cricket.
An Indian panel drafting the regulations proposed a new body to decide whether a game involves skill or chance, and then let games of skill be governed by planned federal rules that include registration requirements, know-your-customer standards and a grievance redress mechanism.
However, as per Reuter’s report, an official from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office objected to such a differentiation saying, “due to a lack of legal clarity and conflicting court decisions, it was not easy to distinguish games as skill or chance. Online gaming may be considered an activity/service with no distinction.”
Defining games has been contentious in India. The Supreme Court of India says that the card game rummy and some fantasy games are skill-based and legal, while different state courts have taken different views on games like poker.
Three people were directly involved in the rule-making process, including two government officials in New Delhi. The rules would give the federal administration broad oversight of all types of gaming while state governments would have the power to impose outright bans on gambling, or games of chance, the report further said.
The new rules have been drafted amid growing concerns that the proliferation of such games, particularly among young people, has led to addiction and financial loss, with some suicides reported. The government panel’s August report recommended new rules should include de-addiction measures such as periodic warnings and advisories and fixing deposit and withdrawal limits.
(With inputs from Reuters)
