A government panel in India has called for the government to create a regulatory body for online gaming in response to problem gambling issues.
The confidential draft report calls for the creation of a new regulatory body under India’s IT ministry to determine which online games qualify as games of skill and which are chance-based gambling, and for these conclusions to be codified in a new federal online gaming law that will include “punishment provisions, along with blocking powers, for the government against prohibited gaming formats.”
The mobile gaming industry in India is projected to be worth $5 billion by 2025, from $1.5 billion this year. India’s Supreme Court has ruled that the card game rummy and certain fantasy games are skill-based and legal, but at least one state court classified games such as poker as chance-based, or akin to gambling, which is banned in most states.
“On the aspect of prohibiting games of chance being played online, the proposed Digital India Act can include it in the list of prohibited user harms that will not be permitted,” the report stated.
