GAME OF CHANCE

The government has ridden piggyback on a Supreme Court order declaring rummy as more of a game of skill than chance, to try and legalise the online gaming industry in India. The MelTy has also proposed a self-regulatory organisation on the lines of the Press Council of India for this industry sector

- India Legal Bureau

INDIAS gaming industry will finally be able to discard its gambling den” stigma, with the government agreeing to the setting up of a self regulatory body that will oversee the online gaming sector in the country. To an extent, this has been boosted by a Supreme Court ruling that decided that rummy was mostly a game of skill and not of chance, hence it cannot be categorised as a gambling game. Apart from the Court, the government has also agreed that it is necessary to restrict all gaming activity online to games, including fantasy sport, involving skill and not chance. What the government has proposed—and the gaming industry has welcomed—are revisions to the IT Intermediary Rules and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, that apply to the online gaming industry. The revisions envision a self-regulatory body, quite like what the Press Council of India PCI) does for mainline media. The PCT is a statutory, adjudicating organisation, formed in 1966 as the self-regulatory watchdog of the press, for the press and by the press, and it operates under the Press Council Act of 1978. Similarly, this Self-Regulatory Organisation SRO) will have to be registered with the Ministry of Electronics IT MeITy).

Other than that, it has been proposed that there has to be mandatory KYC player verification for online gaming companies. Gaming companies have, for long, wanted clarity in the different rules governing esports games of skill) and gaming fantasy, card games and other games of chance, etc). The latter, however, remains under scrutiny by various state governments, this being a state subject.