India state bans online gambling

[The Buzz]

The Council of Ministers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh announced a ban online gambling last week "for the protection of the youth" and will jail those who operate or play products such as online rummy and poker.

From India.com

Giving information to the journalists of the cabinet meeting, Perni Venkataramaiah said that nowadays online gambling has become one which is ‘misleading’ and harming the youth.

“So we have decided to ban all such online gambling to protect the youth,” Information Minister said.

According to the cabinet’s decision, the organizers of online gambling will have to go to jail for a year, in addition to the crime for the first time. The second offense will carry a prison sentence of up to two years with a fine. The minister said that those caught playing online games will face a jail term of six months.

The decision came after the government has banned Chinese mobile apps (India bans 118 Chinese Apps) amidst the ongoing tension between India and China. This time 118 mobile apps have been banned, including the popular gaming app PUBG banned in India. The government has banned them citing national security. Chinese apps that are banned this time include mobile apps such as Livik, WeChat Work and WeChat Reading, Applock, Carrom Friends, besides PUBG.

The ministry has said in its statement that it had received many complaints about these apps. We had received several reports that some mobile apps on Android and iOS platforms were stealing users’ data and constantly passing them illegally to their servers located outside the country.

Read the article here: https://www.india.com/technology/onl...youth-4130346/

[ocreditor]

This is a major thing, many operators entered India during the last year, India become an emarging market for the gambling industry.
Following to this ban many operators will retreat from India and it's very interesting to see how this ban is going to be enforced in the long term.

[baldidiot]

Any word from any of the casinos about this?

[Topboss]

The story of our life. We uploaded an Indian page just last week and have already paid our writers for Indian reviews!

Same thing happened to us when we went into the Australian market!!

However, Its weird how they keep referring to online gambling games and no mention of the word casinos. They only refer to Rummy and Poker.

But I am sure that covers casinos too.

[baxity]

That's devastating news. Are they going to implement an Indian license, so at least limited amount of operators can continue to work? India was the next GEO I wanted to launch on my site. That's just sad

[gil.langelaan]

I've heard before and recently even read the article at Duexpress that India’s online gambling industry in 2019 had valued 62 Billion Rupees, and the predictions for the future are huge too.
So, you know I guess it's still a great market to expand the business.

[baldidiot]

I've just actually read the news and looks like the ban is limited to just one region of india, not the country as a whole so the title is perhaps a little missleading.

[ocreditor]

I've just actually read the news and looks like the ban is limited to just one region of india, not the country as a whole so the title is perhaps a little missleading.

You are correct but the rest of the regions will most probably follow the ban, now that this is on the agenda and discussed on high levels

[Brand_24]

You are correct but the rest of the regions will most probably follow the ban, now that this is on the agenda and discussed on high levels

Region in India is probably like 100 Milion of people...So that are really bad news...

[Strider1973]

Region in India is probably like 100 Milion of people...So that are really bad news...

It's 50M out of 1350M, so less than 4%. Negligible as long as other regions don't follow. Plus we (at least me) currently don't know what they mean with "ban". As long as it's not geoblocking and as long as operators stay actiive in India, I wouldn't panic.

[dangthuy02]

Same thing happened to us when we went into the Australian market!!

[Pokerface]

We have gradually added new India based sites but have not generated any real traffic. Thought it would be worth a try but other than listings and promoting to the India market expectation have been low.

With such a large population there is a lot of potential.

[thesamurai]

We have some Indian traffic and my opinion is they cannot deposit. Let's say 100 regs and just 5 ftds, the traffic is absolutely 100% organic user intent to play/sign up. How is for you? Do you recommend any bookie for there?

[Nenad]

Sure, there was a large potential with such a large market. We'll see is this decision is going to last, or it will ne abandoned soon...

[LCI]

We have some Indian traffic and my opinion is they cannot deposit. Let's say 100 regs and just 5 ftds, the traffic is absolutely 100% organic user intent to play/sign up. How is for you? Do you recommend any bookie for there?

There are quite a few brands that convert really well in India. You just need to know which brands have the right payment methods. The typical MGA and UKGC brands that everyone promotes are not always good options because it's hard for them to set up the proper payment systems. Whoever wants more info send me a PM.