India Legal – July 13, 2019

Focus/ Online Gaming

26 July 22, 2019

NE of the Indian Premier

League’s biggest contribu-

tion has been a massive

increase in online gaming

in India. All Teen Patti

and Paplu players have

taken to placing bets and learning

online lingo like they were born to it.

There has been a three-dimensional

growth alongside it in the field of e-wal-

lets, sophisticated virtual gaming rooms

and software and surprisingly, lawmak-

ers are looking at it positively and want-

ing it to be in conformity with interna-

tional laws and rules of gaming.

The first one to realise this was

Pawan Kumar Chamling, former chief

minister of Sikkim, who passed the

Online Gaming Act in the state in 2014.

This allowed the issuance of licences for

game sites, making it possible to use

Indian money legally at least within the

state. Punters have been at it for long,

but one major hurdle has always been

the exchange of cash, as most sites are

controlled from the US or Europe.

The second hurdle was that most of

these sites would play blackjack and

poker, but not India’s favourite Teen

Patti and Paplu.

But Future Gaming Solutions,

became the first company to be licensed

and opened the floodgates. The Indian

High Stakes

This new form of betting has caught on in India and is worth around `20,000 crore

annually. Is it time to have a gaming commission to govern and license this industry?

By Neeraj Mishra

O

ALL FOR A FAST BUCK

Gambling on online gaming

sites is catching on

Anil Shakya

.

.

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