If you want to legally gamble in a physical casino in India, you will need to travel to Goa or Sikkim. These liberal states have made it legal to set up and run a casino for profit, but it’s a practice that remains outlawed in the rest of the subcontinent. What’s really interesting is how this shift in policy has been reflected in the online world. To make sure you don’t have to go anywhere else for information, we’re going to explain why it’s such a complex, convoluted issue.
Is online gambling legal in India?
Online gambling is not banned in India and can be safely and securely played by anyone of legal age. The problem is that a quick Google search will throw up a wide array of apparently conflicting and contradictory sources of information. The key point is to look at the latest unbiased guidance so that you can see the big picture. Our approach in this quick article is focused solely on doing so.
The only people who are forbidden by the law to play online casinos are minors who are under the legal age of adulthood. This is a common practice in every country and jurisdiction around the world that welcomes online gambling as a form of entertainment and should be nothing to be surprised by. We do, however, need to look at why things are so complicated when you start to search for answers online.
Why is online gambling questioned by some?
In the past regulators and government agencies have attempted to ban online casino gambling for one or all of the following reasons:
- They believe that online gambling should be automatically outlawed in states where in-person gambling in casinos is not legal
- They are concerned about the security of financial transactions and the way in which financial information is processed and stored
- They have taken issue with the way in which personal information and data are used to target new offers at existing customers
- They are unclear about the strict age guidelines that every online casino shows to players when they come to sign up
Our job here is not to decide whether one side is right and the other is wrong — we simply report the facts and the legal landscape. We can learn a lot from looking at the way online casinos currently adhere to the rules and regulations.
All of the games displayed on pages like askgamblers.com/online-casinos/countries/in/bonus must adhere to a strict set of legal rules and regulations. This is so that players are protected, both in terms of personal and financial details, allowing them to play with peace of mind. While many industries attempt to sidestep regulation, the approach taken by online gambling companies is to embrace it. By doing so they can ensure that they operate within the law at all times as they continue to innovate and diversify.
Can we think of online gambling as legal entertainment?
A series of legal precedents in Indian online gambling have resulted in a complex and highly nuanced landscape. The complexity of the issue should not get in the way of the fact that online gambling is becoming popular with certain sections of Indian society, but this is not to say that we are actively promoting it — again, we simply report the facts.
One of how online gambling can continue to be seen as a legitimate and legal means of entertainment is through strict age restrictions. Movies have been classified as a form of age-restricted content for decades, and this is something that should be welcomed. Casino games, quite rightly, are restricted to adults and checks are made to ensure they are only ever playing within their means.
Offers that entice players to gamble more than they can afford, or to play so frequently that it impacts their health and wellness, have no place in the regulated Indian iGaming sector. Entertainment should be something that is fun and can be run as a sustainable business by the operator. It should never be something that exploits its users and players at the expense of their quality of life. Indian online gambling must continue to do right by the people who play the games if it is to continue being classed as a form of entertainment.
What is the current public perception of online gambling?
The new generation has a degree of access to information that previous generations would have thought was the stuff of dreams. WiFi, smartphones, and instant app notifications mean that young professionals in India are connected to the wider world in a way that is changing their lives.
Online gambling games developed in all corners of the world, but tailored to the Indian market in terms of security and gameplay, are changing the way the sector is seen. It is no longer a legal headache tackled by a few serious players. Today online gambling is becoming increasingly socially acceptable amongst responsible players who do not play to excess.