India has moved a legislation to ban online money gaming due to rising instances of addiction, money laundering and financial frauds through these apps.
A bill passed in the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday seeks to prohibit promotion and operation of gaming apps that require users to pay money for the chance to win cash.
The move threatens India’s $3.8 billion gaming industry that has drawn global investors and also fostered homegrown fantasy sports betting apps such as Dream11, Games24X7 and Mobile Premier League.
Shares of Nazara Technologies Ltd., which owns a stake in online poker platform PokerBaazi, fell as much as 13% in Mumbai. Casino operator Delta Corp Ltd. pared losses and closed almost 1% up after a decline of nearly 7%.
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“People lose their life’s savings in online money gaming,” India’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw told lawmakers in New Delhi. He said the government intends to curb the addiction and financial harm that comes with online money gaming, but will promote e-sports and social gaming.
Dream11 and Mobile Premier League declined a request to comment by Bloomberg News.
The bill, which also recommends a regulator for e-sports, educational platforms and social games, needs to be further cleared by the upper house of the parliament and signed by the President of India to become law.
Indian lawmakers feel an outright ban on online money gaming would be more effective than regulation, considering the financial ruin caused to many households through “manipulative design features and addictive algorithms.” Also, many platforms were found to have links to “financial fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and terror funding.”
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With many of the operators based offshore, it becomes difficult to enforce state rules and taxes, the lawmakers said.
Indian gaming associations have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging for “progressive regulation” rather than prohibition, warning that the proposed legislation could prove a “death knell for the industry.”
“The only beneficiary of this bill will be the illegal offshore gambling operators,” according to the letter jointly sent by All India Gaming Federation, E-Gaming Federation and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports. “If legitimate Indian businesses are shut down, unregulated actors will fill the vacuum.”
The proposed ban comes on top of India’s move to impose a 28% goods and services tax on online gaming and casinos in 2023.