Real money online gaming: Ban it or allow it with regulations?

Should rummy and other real money online games be allowed with regulations or outrightly banned? While this question faces a legal test, industry players have urged Karnataka to come up with a skill-gaming policy instead of an absolute ban, which they feel would kill a sunrise sector.

The policy, they argue, can provide a blueprint in line with global best practices. Based on a petition filed in September last year, the High Court of Karnataka had directed the government to table before the state cabinet a proposal to regulate online gaming.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have banned real money gaming. The Kerala Gaming Act, 1960, grants a special exemption to online rummy. Currently, a regulatory vacuum exists in Karnataka, and the petitioner had sought the court’s intervention to change this.

The industry players say that a gaming policy based on the principles of effective control can help promote a sector with immense revenue and employment potential.

“We are hoping for a forward-looking skill-gaming policy. Globally, this is a well-recognised form of entertainment. In India, it has the potential to be bigger than television and OTT platforms,” notes Sameer Barde, Chief Executive Officer, The Online Rummy Federation.

To ban rummy and other online gaming based on real money, other states had a rationale: That it amounts to gambling. But the industry players say that rummy is a game of skill, and such skill games are not gambling. “Even cricket has a coin toss at the beginning. The game can swing based on who wins the toss,” Barde contends.

In support of their contention, they cite a report authored jointly by the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Deloitte Advanced Analytics, which concluded after a detailed statistical analysis that rummy is essentially a game of skill.

The gaming industry, says Barde, is keen to work with the government to evolve a regulatory mechanism. Self-regulation is already embedded in the system. “This ensures that the player experience is fair and transparent, underage players are not allowed and KYC and SSL encryptions are integrated. We have also set daily and monthly limits.”

Nationwide, online skill gaming has an estimated 300 million players of whom 60-80 millions play rummy. Largely driven by smartphones and affordable data, the sector’s rapid growth is expected to boost the total media and entertainment industry by 4% to 5%.