Centre To Form Its Own Gaming SRO If Industry Bodies Fail To Meet Deadline

If the gaming industry fails to offer a proposal for the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) before the end of the three-month deadline ending on July 6, the central government will look at forming its own SRO for implementation of online gaming rules notified in April.

Gaming companies and their representative bodies were asked to try and form the SRO within the 30 days and maximum over the 90 days by senior government officials from the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) soon after the notification came out on April 6.

When MeitY notified the online gaming rules, it notified a three-month deadline to form SROs. Under the new rules, all online games would be determined as permissible or not by a SRO. Moreover, there would be multiple SROs, the ministry briefed earlier.

However, even after more than a month, the gaming firms and the industry bodies have not been able to reach a consensus yet on the structure, nature of the SRO, as well as on deciding nominated members, ET reported.

Different industry bodies including the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), E-Gaming Federation (EGF) and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have differences on their interests and ethics of how gaming SROs should function.

However, the industry hoped to resolve these differences before the end of the deadline. Meanwhile, gaming industry bodies such as AIGF and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) said they were working with the industry partners to form a SRO in line with the new regulations.

On the other hand, MeitY is not very enthusiastic about SROs formed by existing industry and gaming associations, rather looking at an independent structure.

“The structure we are looking at is that it is an existing organisation that does public policy and they come up with a proposal that they co-opt a gamer, a teacher, a psychiatrist, and others. The intent, however, should be absolutely clear that they should not be captured by anybody,” a ministry official said as quoted in the report.

MeitY notified the rules for online gaming on April 6 after months of consultation. “In the innovation ecosystem, online gaming represents a huge opportunity for Indian startups… We have seen over the last several months, many startups crying foul of state regulations,” Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

He added that it is often confusing for startups to have to deal with ambiguous legal frameworks. “We hope that these rules will create a much more stable, consistent, predictable framework for all those startups that are interested in the online gaming ecosystem,” he said.

Earlier in January, MeitY published draft online gaming rules, as draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, after the Centre appointed it as the nodal ministry to oversee the online gaming industry.

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