CRYPTO IS GETTING BIG IN INDIA AND HERE’S WHY IGAMING OPERATORS SHOULD CARE

Words by Felicia Wijkander

Anyone within the iGaming industry who’s been searching the world for the next best online casino market has had their eye on India.

As a matter of fact, some of you reading this are possibly already accepting desi players, are thinking about it, or have done so in the past.

India is a confusing market due to its complicated gambling laws consisting of one (archaic) national gambling law, one IT act, and no less than 38 individual laws, one for each state and union territory.

But there's now an opportunity for change, all thanks to cryptocurrencies. Crypto is creating a legal landslide in India. It is quickly making its way into the digital wallets of the world’s population, and India is no different. As more and more desi citizens are investing their hardearned rupees into cryptocurrencies, the Indian High Court has been quick to set up laws for these digital means of wealth.

One of the most prominent laws has been crypto taxation and TDS. As of the 1st of April 2022, income from crypto and NFTs is taxed at a rate of 30%, and as of the 1st of July 2022, a 1% TDS will apply to digital-asset transfers above a certain size.

Interestingly, this 30% tax stems from the tax required for horse racing and lottery profits; two types of gambling that have been deemed nationally legal in India, with only a few state-specific exceptions. While the new taxation laws are wreaking absolute havoc on the Indian crypto market, it does raise one very important point: the Indian government is willing to come together to, in mere months, create legislation around something that shows great financial potential. And they are doing this for cryptocurrencies, something that hasn’t been explicitly stated legal in the country yet! If crypto is creating the landslide, Indian online gambling is riding its waves. Gambling in India is regulated by the Public Gambling Act 1867 (the “act”). On top of this, each state has the power to dictate its own laws and regulations around gambling, horse racing, sports betting, and lottery.

For the inexperienced, games of skill, games of chance, horse racing, sports betting, virtual sports, and lottery are all viewed differently in India. Yeah, it’s confusing.

As the foundational gambling laws are over a century old, nothing is said about online gambling. This is also the loophole of opportunity many international online operators already are taking advantage of to offer their services in India.

So what do cryptocurrencies have to do with anything? The legality of gambling has been discussed at length for decades, with only slight attempts at legalisation or blanket bans appearing on a state level.

For a long time, it's been considered impossible for online gambling to see even the slightest indication of regulation on a national level.

But here’s the thing: just as it was deemed impossible to run a fourminute mile, other runner started to complete sub-4-minute runs as soon as Roger Bannister broke the record in 1954.

In other words, that barrier of “impossible” isn’t always impossible. Someone just has to take the first step. And in India, cryptocurrencies might very well be the Roger Bannister of gambling regulation. So, what’s next for online gambling in India? Even as I'm writing this, new proposals are being released all over India. Meghalaya continues to work on the most liberal gambling regulation to date, Telangana has turned 180 degrees in their initial gambling blanket ban proposal, and the Online Gaming (Regulation) Bill, 2022, was presented in the Lok Sabha (House of the People in the Parliament of India) on the 1st of April. Let me say that again. An online gaming bill has been proposed on a national level. In India. With the idea of creating an Online Gaming Commission and regulating games disregarding whether they are skill- or chance-based.

The bill is a big bright light at the end of the tunnel for casino operators, but not so much for regular gaming companies, as the bill would include any type of game with real money features.

The dream scenario here would be that India uses its momentum from crypto to look outward at successful regulated gambling markets like the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and others and that they set this ball in motion.

Who knows, we might soon see an Indian online gambling license give gambling operators fully legal access to a gaming industry already estimated to exceed 143 billion rupees by this year.

Felicia Wijkander

Felicia is the Editor in Chief at ENV Media, an organisation focused on creating stellar content for the Indian gambling market. Felicia has previous experience working with regulated gambling markets and has recently created a complete, 38-page guide on all state laws in India on SevenJackpots.com, each page audited by an associate at Indian law firm Touchstone Partners.