The Govt must put in place mechanism to check online gambling sites posing as gaming portals

Online gaming has emerged as one of the fastest growing categories on the internet which is drawing huge crowds with the lure of big prizes. But not all gaming sites are the same. Some are out and out gambling sites masquerading as online portals. The result is many innocent users, mostly teenagers, are indulging in gambling without even realizing it and losing hefty sums of money. At the same time online gaming is one vertical which has a lot of promise for Indian startups and is likely to see exponential rise in the near future. India’s gaming market, which has crossed 507 million active gamers, is definitely one of the biggest in the world. The sheer size of the vertical is mind boggling as it has reached $2.6 billion as per the figures given by Interactive Media Venture Capital Fund Lumikai in its latest report. The domestic gaming industry is expected to almost quadruple to $8.6 billion by 2027. To protect users from the harmful effects of gambling, the Indian government is now taking steps to make sure "online games" conform to Indian laws. How effective they would be known when they are implemented.

Recently, all matters pertaining to online gaming were allocated to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The government has also proposed new amendments, which include reasonable restrictions to ‘host, display, upload, publish, transmit or share’ an online game not in conformity with Indian law, including any law on “gambling or betting”.  This means the ministry is directly taking on the online gambling portals which have mushroomed and lure people with their catchy ads. The amended rules once in place will be applicable to all online gaming matters. As part of the process, MeitY has shared the draft amendments made to the Information Technology Rules, 2021.The government proposal of a "Self-Regulatory Body" (SRO) to keep a tab on the gaming sites is a welcome step. Online gaming sites will need to display a SRO registration mark on all online games. Indeed, the government has a duty to protect young people from falling into the trap of online gambling sites. This is a good start and maybe later on a regulatory body could oversee the activities of online gaming and gambling sites. It is of course important to make a distinction between gaming and gambling but the lines are hazy and it would take careful probe to weed out the bad ones.