What is potentially to become India’s first national-level regulatory framework over online games has started taking its rough shape in the form of draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021. The Central Government and Meity (the Ministry of Electronics and IT) are already working on the details based on inputs from industry and other stakeholders.
As per recent reports, Meity has agreed to align online gaming KYC (Know Your Customer) norms to the Reserve Bank of India’s master guidelines for small PPIs (prepaid payment instruments) for deposits under Rs 10,000.
Informed sources have implied that the Ministry does not intend to invent new KYC requirements and small deposits for gaming online will not necessitate full KYC verifications with video identification, which would burden the operators.
The IT Rules amendments envision the creation of self-regulatory organisations (SROs) which will monitor the online gaming environment, perform certain administrative functions, and promote responsible gaming.
The SROs will add the fine details to the country’s regulatory framework over online gaming that the Centre is roughly carving at the moment, and will “continuously update and further evolve” this framework as per the requirements of the proposed amendments to the IT Rules.
Gamers Want Their Safety Rails
A number of studies have shown that regulations and responsible gaming measures are equally desired by players in mature and developing gambling markets alike. A recent research paper by SevenJackpots has systematised the findings of several such studies and has concluded that gamers in mature economies like the UK have grown to take responsible gaming for granted and expect such safety rails just to be there.
Another survey conducted in India in 2022 by LocalCircles has revealed that as much as 91 percent of respondents wanted the government to put an end to unsolicited SMS texts sent by online fantasy sports platforms asking people to form teams and win real money.
A total of 74 percent answered that individual online games should have limits on losses; out of them, 20 percent said that the limit should be Rs 1,000, and 32% replied that the limit should be only Rs 50. 18 percent of participants couldn’t answer, and only 8 percent thought there shouldn’t be any loss limits imposed on online games.
India’s political class has also been voicing its expectations, including even during discussions at the Rajya Sabha, for the creation of a sensible regulatory environment that would protect the public, enable the homegrown industry to thrive, and channel gaming turnovers through legal and taxable outlets.
The Government Plans for a Completely New Law
Properly regulating Indian online gaming space on the national level would require the enactment of a new central law especially for this purpose. However, the implementation of such a law would take time and should be considered a “long-term measure”.
This conclusion was reported in September last year by the Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMTF) composed of PM Narendra Modi’s top officials which had been earlier tasked to examine the possibilities to regulate online gaming in India.
For this reason, the IMTF report recommended using the rules under the existing IT legislation to initiate regulatory reform over online gaming as an interim measure. As we can see, the step-by-step approach by the government has allowed the country’s future regulatory framework to start already taking its rough shape.
