Draft Rules On Online Gaming Ready, To Be Notified Soon: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government is likely to notify draft rules on online gaming soon.

Speaking at the Times Network India Digital Fest on Tuesday, the minister informed that the draft rules are ready after ‘extensive consultation’. It is currently in the process of scrutiny, he added.

He also pointed out that online gaming represents platforms who are operating on the internet. “We will certainly make it very, very difficult and certainly illegal for any wagering to happen on these games,” he said.

He further noted when it comes to legislation of emerging sectors, the government’s approach or a response to a sector is not based on comfort or discomfort, rather on harm, legality and illegality.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) published draft online gaming rules, as draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, after the Centre appointed MeitY as the nodal ministry to oversee the online gaming industry.

“With the user base of online games growing in India, need has been felt to ensure that such games be offered in conformity with Indian laws and that the users of such games be safeguarded against potential harm,” MeitY said.

As per the draft amendments, online gaming intermediaries will have to follow the due diligence required under the rules while discharging their duties. These include reasonable efforts to mandate its users not to host, display, upload, publish, transmit or share an online game not in conformity with Indian laws, including any law on gambling or betting.

While the draft rules proposed a self regulatory mechanism for the gaming sector, Chandrasekhar said earlier that the self-regulatory organisations proposed under the draft rules have to be steered away from the dominance of major players. Industry bodies can’t be allowed to become self-regulatory organisations for the online gaming space, he added.

India’s gaming market size was estimated to be around $ 2.6 Bn in FY22, and was predicted to reach a size of $8.6 Bn by FY27, according to a report by Lumikai. The number of gamers in India stood at 507 Mn in FY22, growing at a CAGR of 12% from 450 Mn in FY21.