The Need To Regulate Online Gaming Has Entered India’s Political Agenda

The ambiguous and blurry distinction between games of skill and games of chance that forms the basis of India’s existing legislation on the subject causes confusion and has led to a number of litigations in the country’s court system.

Urgency Of Situation Addressed In Parliament

In December last year, a member of parliament brought the attention of the house to the urgent need of adopting a comprehensive regulation over online gaming in India aiming to curb societal costs such as gambling addictions and financial ruin in citizens.

Senior BJP leader and M.P. Sushil Kumar Modi spoke during the Rajya Sabha Zero Hour highlighting the failure of state-level blanket bans on gaming to solve the issue and pointed out that a central solution is needed.

“Online gaming is becoming a big addiction. I would like to highlight that this sector, like the crypto industry, certainly has regulatory lacunae. So, I would urge the government to bring a uniform tax on online gaming. I urge the government to make a comprehensive framework of regulation for online gaming,” Sushil Modi pleaded.

The unregulated status of India’s online casino, betting and skill gaming market exposes the public, and especially young citizens, to various risks including falling prey to fraudulent operators, gambling addiction, accumulating large debt and others. “Crores and crores of youngsters have become addictive to online gaming. As it is online, it is very difficult to prevent kids from getting addicted,” M.P. Modi said in his speech in the Rajya Sabha.

The ambiguous and blurry distinction between games of skill and games of chance that forms the basis of India’s existing legislation on the subject causes confusion and has led to a number of litigations in the country’s court system. “And now this online gaming has been converted into gambling or betting. And now there is a controversy whether it is a game of skill or it is a game of chance,” Sushil Modi pointed out.

The BJP leader also spoke about the failures of some states of the Union, such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala to curb the social risks related to gambling by attempting to implement a blanket ban on all gaming. These prohibitions were quickly rejected by the respective High Courts on the grounds of their unconstitutionality, including the blanket gaming ban enacted by the Karnataka government which was struck down in February 2022, a couple of months after M.P. Modi’s speech.

Study Reveals a Growing Popularity of Real Money Gaming and Emerging New Trends

A recently published study reveals the growing popularity of real money games in India unfazed by the country’s generally prohibitive legal stance and highlights the newly emerging trends among desi gamers. “Classic casino games, typical for Western-style casino floors, are getting just as popular among desi fans as traditional Indian games. Online Roulette and Slots have more fans than the rest but Asian games are also in demand, especially with a live dealer,” observes industry researcher Svilen Madjov.

The study analyses primary datasets on the preferences of more than 17 lakh registered users on the PureWin online casino platform throughout most of 2021 and uses publicly available data provided by Google Trends and different industry statistics to draw its conclusions.

“Quite importantly, most games in the leading pack are played with a live dealer, with the exception of slots. The majority of fan favourites are quick-play versions, especially in the roulette category. Features classified as “lightning”, “speed”, “instant” or “auto” draw the most crowds and online bets,” Mr Madjov states.

Besides a growing taste for Western games, with roulette titles generating 70.1 per cent of the turnover in the top 30 highest grossing games, and slots being responsible for 35.7 per cent of sessions in the top 100 games by player count, traditional desi and Asian games also hold their popularity.

“Andar Bahar is ranked 4th overall by the number of players and first among Indian table games. It also attracts a large number of high-rollers, players who raise total turnovers and gaming sessions’ length considerably. Teen Patti is also a game that comes high among player preferences. That is also not a surprise, since it regularly dominates mobile app rankings,” the study highlights.

Regulation over Online Gaming in India Finally in the Making 

In the several months following Sushil Modi’s address to parliament, India witnessed a number of developments on the central and state levels signalling the dawn of online gaming regulations in India that might soon start bearing its fruits.

On April 1, the Online Gaming (Regulation) Bill, 2022, was tabled at the Lok Sabha seeking the establishment of an Online Gaming Commission by the Central Government. The Commission is to be mandated to oversee the functioning of India’s online gaming market, devise rules, and grant, suspend or revoke licenses to operators of gaming websites and servers.

Notably, the Bill deals away with the distinction between skill- and chance-based gaming and attempts to regulate all play varieties under one umbrella. Experts, however, don’t see the adoption of the bill as realistic.

During the first half of 2022, the Central Government formed two task forces, one aimed to devise a broad legal framework to regulate online gaming, and the other mandated to promote the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector.

At the level of states, there has also been a trend toward regulation, rather than banning, with one example being the proposed Rajasthan Virtual Online Sports (Regulation) Bill, 2022, the draft of which was recently made available for public comments.

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