The Government Of India Proposes Regulatory Body For Online Gaming

The Indian online gaming market, one of the fastest-growing in the word, is expected to finally receive some more attention from the government as a proposal for a regulatory body is revealed.

The international media revealed that a panel of experts close to Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, recommended the development of a regulatory body that would govern online gaming in te country.

The panel comprises the Ministers of Revenue and Sports, and it recommended that the regulatory body would classify online games in two categories: games based on skill and games based on chance.

That would finally end the debate on which games fall into which category and would clarify the regulatory framework. Moreover, online casinos and online sportsbooks will fall under stricter scrutiny.

The industry has immense growth potential in India, and that was proven by big foreign investors such as Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, which invested into gaming startups such as Mobile Premier League and Dream11, very popular among cricket fans.

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The panel members have been working on the proposed regulations for months, as online gaming is a source of intense debate in Indian society. In fact, some state governments such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala are looking to ban online gaming entirely, including popular games such as rummy.

A nationwide regulatory framework is badly needed as the industry is expected to reach a value of 5 billion dollars by 2025. Under the proposal by the panel, online gaming would come under the purview of the Union IT Ministry, while e-sports and games of chance would have a separate regulatory body.

The new rules would apply both to Indian gaming companies and to foreign companies that would target Indian customers. The IT Ministry is currently in charge of concluding the report after receiving further input from panel members. For now there is no clear timeline fixed for the upcoming steps until the proposal becomes law.

India’s gaming sector attracted investments of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in the last 17 months, with over 400 online gaming startups appearing during that period. The increased employment opportunities and potential revenue eventually pushed the government to finally consider regulating the sector.

SOURCE: “Indian government proposes online gaming regulatory body“. Asia Gaming Brief. September 20, 2022.