Online gambling in India is growing very rapidly. With social media platforms creating significant awareness by providing loads of information on the different options available to online gamblers, this sector is fast gaining significance. Along with the technical advancements and widespread mobile internet presence, online gambling is gaining a lot of popularity in India.
Even with the social factors, economic and legal perspectives, there is a widespread acceptance of online gambling in India. This is further accentuated by user-friendly sites that provide gambling enthusiasts with all the relevant information about the different online gambling platforms and what they have to offer. You can find bonuses and rewards with complete transparency on https://www.askgamblers.com/online-casinos/countries/in/bonus. These rewards are mentioned upfront so players can choose whether they want to play and how the bonuses and rewards will benefit them.
India is seeing a major shift from traditional offline gambling forms to online platforms. While this is happening, users are trying to cope with different regulatory and social challenges.
Key Issues to Focus On
- Statutory Regulations:
India, as a country, is made up of different states and regions. The regulatory framework, while at the macro level may be central and applicable throughout India, specific regulations may vary from state to state. There are few states that have controlled and regulated online gambling, while few states have restrictions and prohibit gambling. This, among a few other challenges, does not make it conducive for the online gambling sector to grow uniformly.
- Legal Framework:
There is still some shortfall and ambiguity on the clarity of a centralized legal framework pertaining to online gambling. While the ongoing Gambling Act is still applicable, the required clarity regarding its applicability to online gambling still needs to be articulated in law.
- Statutory Taxes and Levies:
While India’s taxation system encompasses and covers practically all aspects, there is still some disparity and uncertainty with respect to the enforcement. In essence, authorities are now becoming aware of the significant amount of revenue online gambling could generate for them. However, delicate social issues seem to become an impediment for the authorities when framing the tax framework.
- Fair Gambling:
While India’s legal system has accepted skill-based gambling to a large extent, other chance-based gambling still goes through a very strict and restrictive regulatory framework. In some cases, even complete prohibition. This divide brings to the fore complex legal ramifications.
- Illegal Betting:
In recent times, there has been a substantial increase in illegal and unregulated betting sites. The major threats from these sites and platforms are mainly those related to player protection, their safety, and data security. Such sites could pose a threat of perpetuating financial theft.
Some Emerging Trends
- Fantasy Gaming:
This kind of gaming is fast becoming alarmingly popular in India, as compared to the traditional gambling option. Fantasy games are considered less risky as an alternative. Also, this form of gambling can be brought under the purview of skill-based gaming with clear legal frameworks for regulation. Once accepted on a large scale, this could possibly pave the way for a much more controlled and well-regulated online gambling scenario in India.
- Investments:
There are a lot of online gambling sites and platforms in India, attracting sizeable investments from the venture capital and private equity sectors. A large portion of the investment is deployed for technology development, customer reach programs, platform awareness marketing, infrastructure improvement and launching new games.
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics:
Development and implementation of advanced artificial intelligence software and data analytics are seen to be assisting online gambling sites and platforms in many ways. It is helping to improve player engagement, create a competitive experience and enable a certain level of personalisation of content for users. With proper tracking and assessment, sites and platforms will now be able to predict player behavior during the gaming experience.
- Responsible Gambling & Player Protection:
Going forward, regulatory authorities are focusing more on ensuring player protection, underage participation, assistance for addictive gamblers, and security from financial or data theft. Safe online gambling initiatives through periodic screen shout-outs and advisory messages with self-exclusion assistance are expected to see some results.
As reported by many studies and as it is also quite visible, online gambling in India is going through a substantial growth phase. Even with the regulatory ambiguity and lack of a centralized legal framework covering the entire country, India’s online gambling sector seems to be only surging forward. Using the learnings of the past few years, if India’s regulatory authorities are able to devise and enforce a robust framework, it can shape the future of online gambling in India. It has the potential to become a significantly large contributor to the country’s revenue generation.
India’s internet reach is among the largest in the world. Once online gambling integrates, through proper regulation, with the mobile network, India has the potential to become one of the largest online gambling regions in the world. It will ultimately depend on how all the issues and trends evolve to make it a more conducive environment.
Also read more:- Mobile Gaming and the Rise of Casino Apps