India plans federal oversight of all real-money online games

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (Reuters) – India’s planned regulation of online gaming will apply to all real-money games after the prime minister’s office overruled a proposal to only regulate games of skill and leave out games of chance, according to a government document and three sources.

The much-awaited regulations are seen shaping the future of India’s gaming sector that research firm Redseeer estimates will be worth $7 billion by 2026, dominated by real-money games. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital have in recent years backed Indian startups Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, popular for fantasy cricket.

An Indian panel tasked with drafting the regulation in August proposed a new body to decide whether a game involves skill or chance, and then let skill games be governed by planned federal rules that call for registration requirements, know-your-customer norms and a grievance redress…