Proposals for industry body rejected, Centre to regulate e-gaming

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Last Updated14/02/2024

MeitY will now prepare a framework for permitting and certifying online games which involve money.
This means, the Government of India will act as a regulator for the online gaming sector rather than an industry-led self-regulatory organisation (SRO).

As per IT rules, online real money games require approval from a regulatory body, while those without monetary involvement do not need regulation.
The government had notified the online gaming rules last year and had given 3-months to the industry to come up with proposals for SROs.
However, the proposals received were heavily dominated by gaming companies and their industry associations.
Therefore, MeitY rejected the SRO proposals emphasizing the need for a neutral regulatory body.

These are video games that were played privately or on consoles in video game stores in the 1990s
Now, they are played online in a structured manner between professional players, either individually or in teams.

These are games in which the player selects a team of real sports players from several teams and earns points based on how well the players perform in real life.

These could be skill-based, where the outcome is heavily impacted by mental or physical skill or chance-based
A game of chance may be considered as gambling if players bet money or anything of monetary value.

The online gaming industry grew exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The revenue of the Indian mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $5 billion in 2025.
The industry in the country grew at a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% between 2017-2020, as opposed to 8% in China and 10% in the US.
India’s percentage of new paying users (NPUs) in gaming has been the fastest growing in the world.
- With 40% in 2020 and expected to reach 50% in 2021.
According to a FICCI report, transaction-based games revenue increased by 26% in India, while the number of paying players increased from 80 million in 2020 to 95 million in 2021 (by 17%).