Govt to regulate all real-money games

PMO turns down proposal to only regulate games of skill and leave out games of chance

The Union government’s planned regulation of online gaming will apply to all real-money games after the prime minister’s office (PMO) overruled a proposal to only regulate games of skill and leave out games of chance, according to a government document and three sources.

The much-awaited regulations are seen shaping the future of India’s gaming sector that Redseeer estimates will be worth $7 billion by 2026, dominated by real-money games.

A panel tasked with drafting the regulation in August proposed a new body to decide whether a game involves skill or chance, and then let skill games be governed by planned federal rules that call for registration requirements, know-your-customer norms and a grievance redress mechanism. Chance games — considered akin to gambling, which is mostly banned across India — were set to stay under the purview of individual state governments which would be free to regulate them, Reuters has previously reported.

But in an October 26 government meeting, an official from PMO objected to such a differentiation, calling for expanded oversight on all types of games, according to the confidential minutes of the gathering reviewed by Reuters. Differentiating games as skill or chance wasn’t easy due to lack of legal clarity and contrasting court decisions, the minutes quoted the official as saying, adding “online gaming may be considered as one activity/service with no distinction.” Defining games has been contentious. Supreme Court says the card game rummy and certain fantasy games are skill-based and legal, for example, while different state courts have held different views about games such as poker.

The PMO and IT ministry, which is drafting the rules, did not respond to a request for comment.