India plans to introduce bodies for regulating online gaming industry

The Indian government, in its information technology rules’ draft amendments published on Monday,proposed the constitution of a self-regulatory body which will regulate online gaming companies amid rising concerns over people getting addicted to games and businesses being disrupted by patchy state laws.

The proposal that was introduced by a government panel emphasised the need for new rules to regulate the gaming sector which is set to reach $7 billion by 2026, as per consultancy Redseer.

In recent years, US investment firms Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global have supported Indian start-ups like Mobile Premier League and Dream11, which are famous for their fantasy cricket.

The need for regulating the industry comes amid increasing fears that the growth of such games is leading to addiction and financial losses among young citizens.

Approval from the government will be required by the gaming companies for registering a self-regulation body which would constitute a member nominated by the government, who has a background in public administration, public finance, public policy and law enforcement and a member who belongs to the field of medicine, psychology or consumer education.

"We believe this is a great first step for comprehensive regulation for online gaming and will hopefully reduce the state-wise regulatory fragmentation that was a big challenge for the industry," said All India Gaming Federation’s CEO Roland Landers.

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According to the draft amendments, the companies will also need to appoint a chief compliance officer, who will work towards ensuring conformity with the law and will verify the identity of a user before creating an online account for them to play games.

(With inputs from agencies)