Gujarat’s Legislative Assembly will begin its monsoon session on Wednesday, September 13. During the 3-day session, the Assembly will discuss and pass GST Amendment bills pertaining to online real money gaming. Notably, eight bills including the aforementioned one will be taken into discussion.

It is worth mentioning that Draupadi Murmu, Hon’ble President of India, will be inaugurating the session. Soon after being taken into discussion, the bills are expected to be passed later this week. The said bill contains updates to GST on online real money gaming, casinos and horse racing. The bill is expected to be implemented fully starting October 1.

As per ETV Bharat, words like lottery, betting and gambling will be replaced by ‘actionable claims’. This is because the new GST rate does not differentiate between games of skill and chance. GST will be applicable to all the operators who have real money gaming aspect.

Other states also in queue to implement GST Amendments

Goa also recently approved the GST draft ordinance to implement 28% GST on online gaming, casinos and horse racing despite being one of the states opposing the implementation of the new GST rate.

Karnataka, one of many states in support of implementing the new GST rate, was not able to do the same during the current session due to some internal conflict. The bill is now expected to be passed in the next cabinet meeting. The state has currently received a provisional approval for the ordinance.

The bill was passed in the 50th GST council meeting. With a near-unanimous approval, the council decided to levy 28% GST on full face value of aforementioned activities.

However, the method on which tax will be levied was taken on the 51st GST council meeting, again with a near-unanimous decision. The council decided that the tax will be taken on the initial entry amount and not on each bet made.