Playing has always been a part of our gaming since times immemorial, Guest Posting pointless to remind the Indian unbelievable, the Mahabharatha. Subsequently it took so many forms and shapes to be a fundamental element of gaming. Recently, and especially post lockdown, there’s been a huge shift in the Indian gaming industry. The improvement in structure facilities, the increase in internet consumption by people and the exposure for a wide range of games opened the entranceway for online playing and bets. It’s seen the development of several new games like online rummy, poker, cricket fantasy games, etc and given an opportunity to entrepreneurs Slot Gacor across the world to expand their territory in the Indian market with the help of game freelancing companies like RubixQ. But are all of them legal?
In Come early july 2020, a 20-year-old parlour employee who makes body art had to hang himself for not being able to pay the ¹20, 000 that she lost on a gaming iphone app. This isn’t the first time such incidents happened. The being addicted playing, be it traditional or online, has the ease of destroying a person’s life and eventually after the debts mount upon them, it can lead to any drastic decisions like suicides. It means that high courts across the states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, decided to ban online playing games proactively before the number of such incidents rises. In September 2020, Andhra Pradesh government declared online playing to be illegal. Instead of banning them, it made such activities an offence and the wonderful can be prosecuted when caught playing. These moves are made in a manner to frighten people from playing than preventing them altogether.
The Indian gaming laws categorize games broadly into two types – the game of skill and the game of chances whereby the latter makes the playing. This is why why Google had to retrieve Paytm from the play store a while back, for violating the playing policies and being the games of chances, whereas apps like Dream 11 are viewed as games of skill. The Central government has no legal system for playing, the legislation of bets and gamblings lies in the hands of state governments and most of them have an exemption for games of skill. Recently Maharashtra government went to the Better Court to redefine what a game of skill is and what a game of chance is, and where the fantasy games belong to. The better court took up this and called for reveal report on it. If it passes the rule in the give preference to of fantasy games, that industry blossoms like nothing you’ve seen prior. Otherwise, they have to power down.
Also, there’s another discussion going swimming for having truck caps on playing like ¹100 or ¹200 a day and there’ll be a cap for winning too accordingly. When the earnings are huge like in lakhs, the cap can increase up to ¹5, 000 – ¹10, 000. But then, the argument here is for the family of taxation for these games. If the earnings are in lakhs, though the companies are paying GSTs, the tax paid by winners is considerably less. So, they will be using increasing this to a higher rate of tax for these activities.
According to research, the gaming industry in The indian subcontinent is nearly worth $150billions and in the worst-case scenario, corporates involved in it would only want regulations, not bans. For example, horse racing bettings are regulated, casinos in Goa and Sikkim are regulated. There’s another angle to this whole debate – psychological impact. There was a case where a undergraduate of age 12, got enslaved by playing and eventually caught obtaining, lying, losing control to end playing sessions, getting unreasonably angry, etc. According to health experts, playing is a behavioural addiction and possesses its side effects of eating into the regular areas of functions. It can lead to anxiety, impulse control issues, frustration management issues, etc. So, with mental health coming to pole, the ban is justified.
In economics point of view, legalization of these games with nuanced regulations and reasonable taxations can be effective, as governments can then have control over those activities. Otherwise, gamblings can happen in a form or manner and hoard a lot of black money that go unseen. There are some international examples like the UK Playing Act of 2005 where they have a licensing regimen for the 4-5 game categories. However, considering the facts that the industry is still in a nascent stage and the huge number of players, it is a strenuous task for governments to manage the game of chances.