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India’s confusing egaming laws laid bare
> George Oborne > business development director for IndiaBet.com
The laws regarding online gambling in India are often confusing, massively outdated and vary from state to state. Slowly these laws are being clari?ed and last month’s Delhi district court judgement at least gives those thinking of entering the Indian market some guidance of what the judiciary is thinking about online gambling. The case was brought by Anuj Gupta of the Gaussain Network who wanted to ascertain whether his ?rm could legally offer skill games online in India, including poker, rummy, chess and billiards. Gaussain wanted to ?nd out whether taking a 5% rake from players would break the law. The Judge presiding over the case in the Patalia House Court in Delhi was Ms Ina Malhotra. Her 26-page judgement spends a great deal of time judging whether poker is a game of skill. We ?nd it hard to understand how a judge can consider poker to be less skilful than rummy. What the ruling makes clear is the need for a federal law on online gambling in India. Different states seem to be ruling on legal positions in diametrically opposed ways. The Indian government now has an excellent opportunity to regulate online gambling; reducing corruption, protecting gamblers and taking money away from the black market and putting it into the government coffers via taxation. Or, by making it concretely illegal the government could work with internet service providers and payment processing ?rms to properly crack down on online gambling. Either response would be better than the current situation which is so confusing and uncertain that online gambling businesses operating in India can’t be certain which laws – if any – they are breaking.
HK$7.8bn
Net gaming revenue generated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the year ended 30 June 2012 see Power 50, p40
13
Number of places gained by SkyBet in the last two years of the Power 50 (rising from 22nd to 9th) - see Power 50, p40
£1,000
The average bet matched on the Matchbook exchange. See this month’s Q&A on p9
“I have never believed in B2B social gaming. The success of social is the uniqueness of the game and its marketing”
Zokay CEO and Chiligaming founder on IGT’s casino deals for Double Down – see Month End, opposite
72
The number of hours one poker broadcaster had been live on air before deciding to apply for an online gaming licence as “a bit of fun” See The Smoking Gun on p78
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GAMING AND LEISURE ANALYSTS:
Five of the best
10
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