What comes to mind when you think about India?
For us, it’s the wonderful Indian food.
But since we are an iGaming Software Provider, let us tell you this instead: India is called as the recipe of iGaming success—a melting pot for online casino opportunities.
Half of India’s 1.3 billion population is under the age of 25—these are born from the years 1995 onwards.
Yes, they are Millennial’s, but they’re the youngest Millennial’s! And they’re 650,000,000!
On top of that, if we stretch the age range just a little bit more—in this case, under 35 years old (0 to 34 years old), then we’re looking at 65% percent of India’s 1.3 Billion population—which is equal to?
Ding ding ding!
845,000,000 MILLENNIAL’S!
That’s a LOT, brothers and sisters.
Millennial’s. Love them or hate them, it’s impossible for you to avoid them.
We don’t even have to get ALL of them to play in online casinos.
But that’s a whole lot of people, still, who are POTENTIALLY INTERESTED in what we can get them to enjoy.
Another thing to take note of is that, looking at their inherently cultural interest, it looks like they can be bigger fans of Sportsbetting than actual online gaming.
Indians are HUGE fans of national sports like Cricket for instance which is so hot in India.
There’s a bit of a catch, though.
Those are sweet numbers right above there with the millions of millennial’s aka millions of *coughs* potential revenue…..but….get this:
Gambling, the actual act of betting or wagering for money or for money’s worth is currently illegal in India.
However, there are 3 categories that are exempted from these laws that prohibit gambling:
- Horse racing
- Lottery (has separate regulations)
- Games of ‘mere skill’
Yes, you read that right. “Mere skill”. Let’s see what iGaming figure Susan O’Leary has to say about what India means by “mere skill”:
“In 2012, the Supreme Court cleared the guidelines for skill based online gaming declaring that playing skill games for stakes does not amount to gambling. So technically, games which satisfy the preponderance test of ‘skill versus chance’ are not regulated under the current legislation’s.”
She continues, explaining that the Supreme Court of India interprets ‘mere skill’ to include games driven by skill, ruling that:
(i) the competitions where success depends on substantial degree of skill will not fall into category of ‘gambling’; and
(ii) despite there being an element of chance, if a game is preponderantly a game of skill, it would nevertheless be a game of “mere skill”.
In a nutshell, if the game can be generally played using a strategy that makes you win, then it may fall into games of “mere skill”.
It works not in the sense of you having good luck (when you win) or bad luck (when you lose).
It works in such a way that if you win, then you’re skillful or good at it, and if you lose, you lack skill and experience, and you suck at it.
Just like when you’re playing in a match (win or lose) or taking exams (pass or fail)!
Take note that this is only a rough summary of how flexible you can be upon entering the Indian iGaming market.
If you’re serious about taking on the Indian market, you must abide by the regulations.
India, for example, have States of their own, much like the US. Each state may approach the nationwide laws differently, so you must take those into account as well.
Go through these different rules so you’d know where you should register your iGaming business.
This may be daunting, but you must not skip on this step, because remember:
A single lapse can shut down your casino website.
So, now that you’ve read about this, what will you do?
Yay or Nay for India?
Whatever your decision, we’re here to help with your iGaming software requirements.
Chat us up!
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