Shashi Tharoor, the senior Congress leader and a member of parliament all the way from Thiruvananthapuram passed a private member’s bill at the lower house of the parliament or the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks a regulation for the online gaming sector in India which is mostly unorganized and has seen the face of many new gamers in the past two years.
Shashi Tharoor mentioned that the industry has to follow a self-regulatory practice and also there is a need for a proper framework alongside the government oversight to make sure that the service providers are following their license conditions at all time. This will help to track down any suspicious betting patterns and will also help to have proper control over the cash flow to check out the generation of black money. The (Online Gaming and Prevention of Fraud) bill will hence act as a regulatory body which the country needs at the moment.
The main purpose of the bill is to preserve the dignity associated with sports. The bill is divided into two parts for the same. The first part will be dealing with the offenses of sports and also suggests a lawsuit for the purpose. The second part deals with the fact of the increasingly commercial nature of sports played online resulting in the increase of financial incentives and also to encourage such sporting events, therefore, regulating the online sports and betting activities.
The All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), claims that India has 120 million active gamers and the rise in the numbers have seen a 30% jump since the last three years. The 276th report published for the Law Commission of India says that the market presently is worth $360 million and is expected to rise to a record $1billion by 2021.
The bill introduced by Tharoor will also try to regulate the online sports gaming which mainly includes betting on the outcome of the prediction results. The whole part thus takes places by the means of a telecommunication device. Fantasy games in India like Dream 11, BalleBaazi, Fantain Fantasy cricket and others which are directly related to an actual sporting event, will be covered by the ground rules of this bill.
AIGF chief Roland Landers said that “The Urgent need to have intervention by the Government to streamline the industry and help to preserve the dignity of sports” he also mentioned that dealing with such issues related to the online gaming industry is AIGF’s first priority.
