India issues first online poker license

[The Buzz]

Nagaland State has become the first gambling jurisdiction in India to award a license to an online poker operator.

According to several reports, the Nagaland State Lotteries office awarded an online skill games license to M/s K365 Web Assets Pvt Ltd, which operates online poker and rummy portal Khelo365.com. For the moment, K365’s license only covers its poker operations, which include No Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha games. It may be recalled that the Nagaland State Governor had signed the Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Act 2016 in April this year, becoming the first Indian state to formally authorize online games of skill for stakes.

Here's a link to the article in India's Morung Express: http://morungexpress.com/nagaland-is...poker-license/

In the next issue of the GPWA Times Magazine we will feature some of the world's emerging iGaming markets with India being one of them. What do you think of the country's potential?

[PROFRBcom]

It's hard to say really. India of course is a potentially massive market, 1.3 billion people strong. However, most of those people are dirt poor. The overwhelming majority are unbanked as well. This can be evidenced by the utter turmoil going on over there in the last month due to the impromptu banning of 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

The government deciding to declare a war on cash could push more of these people into banking assets. And since one needs a bank account in order to participate in the online sites, I suppose that is a positive in some respects. However, I think the hit to GDP in the upcoming year with the removal of high denomination notes in a mainly cash economy will not be bullish for any potential surge in online poker gambling.