India is cracking down on games that offer betting services by amending its IT rules 2021, requiring self-regulatory bodies to ban apps that offer betting, which has led to a wide range of venture capital-funded startups that have mushroomed in the last decade, may be disrupted.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s state minister for electronics and information technology, said at a press conference that online betting and gambling platforms were posing challenges to New Delhi’s vision of an open and secure internet. “Different startups come into contact with different government regulations. Announced rules will help to bring uniformity, certainty.”
The Department of Electronics and IT has instructed the multibillion-dollar gaming industry to form self-regulatory bodies, saying in its Thursday amendment that such bodies will determine what games are allowed in the country.
“These rules do not take into account all the nuances and refinements of games of chance and skill. We get around that by establishing a basic principle that the moment an online game breaks into betting and betting, regardless of its core content, it’s breaking those rules,” he said.
Chandrasekhar said many online platforms have impersonated gambling, provided gambling services and in some cases engaged in criminal activities such as money laundering.
The vast majority of slot games focus on IPL, a two-month T20 cricket tournament. According to consultancy Redseer, revenue for fantasy sports will grow by a whopping 35% this year to more than $375 million.
“Solid growth in fantasy sports gaming will come from tier 2 cities, driven by increasing adoption of fantasy platforms and cross-migration of users from other games. Greater internet accessibility will boost the IPL economy. Our estimates suggest that the average revenue per user is expected to grow from INR 410 ($5) in IPL 2022 to INR 440 ($5.37) per user in IPL 2023,” the company said.
More to follow.