India Government plan regulation of online gaming will apply to all real-money games after the prime minister’s office overrule a proposal to only regulate games of skill and leave out games of chance, according to a government document and three sources.
This regulations are shaping the future of India’s gaming sector that research firm Redseeer estimates will be worth $7 billion (approx. Rs. 57,000 crore) by 2026, dominated by real-money games.
Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have in recent years back Indian startups Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, popular for fantasy cricket.
Indian panel task with drafting the regulation in August propose a new body to decide whether a game involves skill or chance, and then let skill games be govern by plan federal rules that call for registration requirements, know-your-customer norms and a grievance redress mechanism.
Chance games, consider akin to gambling, which is mostly ban across India were set to stay under the purview of individual state governments which would be free to regulate them, as per reports.
But in an 26th October 2022 government meeting, an official from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office object to such a differentiation, calling for expand oversight on all types of games.
Differentiating games as skill or chance wasn’t easy due to lack of legal clarity and contrasting court decisions, the minutes quote the official as saying, adding “online gaming may be consider as one activity/service with no distinction.”
Defining games has contentious in India.
India’s Supreme Court says the card game rummy and certain fantasy games are skill-base and legal, for example, while different state courts have held different views about games such as poker.
Narendra Modi’s office and the IT ministry, which is drafting the rules, did not respond to a request for comment.
Three people directly involve in the rule-making process, including two government officials in New Delhi, told the rules will give the federal administration broader oversight on all types of games while state governments remain empower to impose outright bans on gambling, or games of chance.
The drafting of the new regulations comes amid growing concerns that the proliferation of such games, particularly among young people, had led to addiction and financial losses, with some report cases of suicide.
One of the government sources said PM Modi’s administration continues to be concern about the potential addiction of such platforms.
The government panel’s August report had recommend new rules should include so-call “de-addiction measures” such as periodic warnings and advisories and fixing deposit and withdrawal limits.
