The online gaming in India is growing at a faster pace than ever before. Recent studies by Deloitte reveal that this particular industry in India will grow at a CAGR of 40% and touch the $2.8 billion mark by 2022. But it won’t be easy to set the bar owing to the absence of policies and the newly found ambiguities in online gaming regulation.

Bhavin Pandya, the CEO of Games24x7, quoted by Times of India, says that “Regulation and not prohibition leads to better outcomes. Adding that a progressive online skill gaming policy can create favourable outcomes for industry, government and the civic.”  This is indeed a powerful statement as Games24x7 is the parent company of a popular game called Rummycircle and a fantasy sports platform named My11Circle.

The NITI Aayog came out with a draft of guidelines for fantasy sports last year while Prime Minister Modi bagged the opportunity to praise the potential of the sunrise sector. With these positive changes, the Indian online gaming laws are seeing some rays of hope. 

Many states are coming up with their own set of policies for the gaming industry. For instance, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka are the torch bearers of this legacy. Meghalaya and Sikkim have come up with their online skill gaming policies while Uttar Pradesh has constituted a commission to prepare a draft of law “that is based on differentiation between games of skill and games of chance.”

There is no doubt about it that the emerging segment of e-gaming is in vogue but the country is in dire need of strict guidelines for better policy governance. Rajasthan is also marching forward to contemplate on how to deal with the blooming sector of online gaming in India. It would be interesting to notice how the Ashok Gehlot government can make a difference by setting clear boundaries between games of skills and games of chance which serve as the foundation for several other states. 

“With real money involved in playing many of the games, certain sections of people equate it to gambling, but the industry experts point out that as per the Supreme court orders, games of skill such as rummy, bridge and fantasy sports are not gambling and that must clear inhibitions of the state governments.”

To shed more light on the growth of online gaming in India Srinivas, co-founder of MPL confirms that there has been a steep ascent in the online gaming sector in the past few years.