Regulation
Regulation
INDIA:
Operators undeterred by Commission’ s backtracking
The apparent backtracking of India’ s Law Commission on its gambling legalisation recommendation has done little to deter those with an eye on the huge market, says Joanne Christie
When India’ s Law Commission came out with what was widely interpreted as a recommendation that betting and gambling be legalised in the country on 5 July, the country’ s press went into overdrive.
Shares in India’ s only listed casino operator, Delta Corp, rose and foreign operators the world over began salivating at the prospect of another enormous market opening up in the near future.
Rather confusingly, however, the Commission put out a press release the following day clarifying it had not, in fact, recommended legalisation or regulation but rather a complete ban on gambling.
It reiterated a portion of the conclusion of its lengthy 145-page report, specifically:“ The Commission reaches the inescapable conclusion that legalising betting and gambling is not desirable in India in the present scenario.
“ Therefore, the State authorities must ensure enforcement of a complete ban on unlawful betting and gambling.
“ However, incapability to enforce a complete ban has resulted in rampant increase in illegal gambling, resulting in a boom in black-money generation and circulation.
“ Since it is not possible to prevent these activities completely, effectively regulating them remains the only viable option.”
But the clarification note did little to deter the industry’ s enthusiasm, with many speculating the media had gone overboard and the commission had therefore taken a lot of heat from politicians on both sides and was simply seeking to emphasise that it was a political decision to make.
Enthusiasm abounds Vaibhav Gaggar, managing partner at law firm Gaggar and Partners, was unperturbed by the Commission’ s apparent backtracking.
“ Despite the press note that came out the next day, there is a huge amount of expectation and excitement.
“ We expected a positive report coming out but this has actually gone way further because earlier they were looking at only betting as it was the sports betting markets they were mandated to look into.
“ But they’ ve spoken about legalising and regulating various other forms of gambling and they’ ve made certain serious observations on why it needs to be regulated and legalised.
“ Plus they have gone ahead and given recommendations in terms of what the structure should be like, so I think it is a huge step forward.”
“ The Commission put out a press release the following day clarifying it had recommended a complete ban on gambling”
Roland Landers, CEO at the All India Gaming Federation( AIGF), which represents a range of local and foreign companies, says its members also view the report as a“ good positive first step in the right direction”.
Presumably PokerStars – the only licensed foreign poker site in India, with its Indian site operated by Sachiko Gaming Pvt Ltd – didn’ t interpret the report as recommending a ban, as when asked for comment, a spokesperson said,“ We always welcome conversation around smart, sensible regulation that protects consumers, operators and the industry, and which allows adults to play the games they love in the safety of their own home.”
However, not everyone is quite so positive. Jay Sayta, corporate lawyer and founder of GLaws. in, a website that covers developments in gambling laws in India, says he takes the clarification note at face value.
iGamingBusiness | Issue 112 | September / October 2018 131