The Tamil Nadu government on March 7 granted a six-week extension to real-money gaming (RMG) companies to implement the recently introduced regulations, a move that is expected to provide temporary relief to the troubled sector.
In a circular, the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) stated that companies and other entities have been granted six weeks from the notification date to comply with the regulations. The state government notified these rules with immediate effect on February 12, 2025. Moneycontrol has viewed a copy of the circular.
This extension was granted based on the representations received from various gaming federations that sought more time to comply with these rules, the circular stated.
On February 9, TNOGA introduced state-specific time and usage restrictions on real-money gaming platforms as part of the state's broader efforts to regulate the burgeoning sector. Under these rules, real-money gaming platforms have to impose 'blank hours' between midnight and 5 am, disabling login during these restricted five hours.
The guidelines also prohibit minors from playing real-money games and mandate companies to offer players the ability to set daily, weekly and monthly monetary limits.
Additionally, platforms should display pop-up caution messages when a player has been playing for more than one hour, and continue to display them every 30 minutes to remind them of their playtime. RMG apps should also continuously display caution messages about the addictive nature of these games, with the wordings "ONLINE GAMING IS ADDICTIVE IN NATURE" on their respective login pages.
Whenever players deposit the money, RMG apps should also display the fixed monetary limit and the amount spent so far, in "reasonably bold letters", the guidelines stated.
Other measures include mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification at the time of account creation. The initial login authentication will require KYC verification through Aadhaar, authenticated by a second-layer verification through One Time Password (OTP) sent to the phone number linked to the Aadhaar number.
Skill gaming companies Games24x7, Junglee Games, and Head Digital Works (A23), as well as the player association Esports Players Welfare Association challenged these rules in Madras High Court last month.
These developments come at a time when India is yet to implement a central regulatory framework for the sector.
In April 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified gaming-related amendments to the IT Act, 2021, which allowed multiple self-regulatory organisations (SROs) to determine whether a real-money game could be permitted in India or not. However, the ministry is said to have later dropped the SRO plan.
Over the years, several RMG companies have pushed for a uniform central regulation to eliminate the uncertainty of navigating through various state-specific regulations that frequently disrupts their business operations.
A central regulation is also crucial to fight the menace of illegal offshore gaming operators since a state law cannot be enforced against a foreign operator, they say.
The Indian gaming industry reported revenues of $3.8 billion for the financial year 2024, a 22.6 percent growth from $3.1 billion in FY23, according to a report by the gaming and interactive media venture fund Lumikai. Of the $3.8 billion in revenue, about $2.4 billion came from the real-money gaming segment.
The report also said the sector is estimated to cross $9.2 billion in revenue by FY29 at a 20 percent CAGR over the next five years.
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