Is gaming different from gambling?

The $3.8 Bn online gaming industry kept reeling under controversy as large swathes of India continued to believe that they’re synonymous and called for a tighter leash on the business.

It’s been nearly two years since the government tried to reset the rules for online gaming, rekindling hopes of a breather for the industry long mired in regulatory uncertainties. But little has changed.

In the absence of a uniform, pan-India regulatory framework, most gaming companies are still in a state of limbo. The cry for intervention from the government for a centralised regulation in gaming turned louder after the April 2023 move from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which was widely seen as a timely intervention that would bring clarity and stability to the sector, failed to break the ice.

Close on the heels of the MeitY setback, came the GST blow later in 2023. A steep hike in levy of 28% was a great spoilsport for the gaming companies. The industry pinned its hope of a resolution in the Union Budget tabled earlier this month, but there was no word on online gaming in the budget for the second year in a row.

The stakes are high as illegal betting platforms made a surge in transactions in the meantime, running up to INR 8.2 Lakh Cr, while users continued to migrate to offshore platforms due to the increasing tax burden on domestic operators.

An Ernst & Young and USISPF report had earlier projected that the online gaming sector would create 250,000 jobs by 2025, but in the new tax regime, this estimate was hacked to just 30,000. A staggering 83.3% of companies are now facing significant challenges in expanding their workforce.

While the industry kept trying to wriggle out of the knots, the pan-India gamer base spiralled to 590 Mn by the end of 2024, making it the second-largest mobile gaming market in the world, according to a report by New Delhi-based venture capital firm Lumikai. India’s online gaming market, is expected to cross $9.2 Bn by FY29, averaging a........

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