The government will soon come up with rules to regulate online gaming intermediaries and start public consultation on the matter, minister of state for information technology and electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.
Through the rules, the government will ensure that there are no illegal content and services while encouraging technology innovations, Chandrasekhar said in a tweet.
The comments from the minister follows the appointment of ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) as the nodal ministry for regulating online gaming and intermediaries.
In addition, the youth affairs and sports ministry will regulate e-sports as part of multiple sports events, as per the amendments to the Allocation of Business Rules by the Central government.
Real-money gaming apps such as Dream11 and Mobile Premium League (MPL) have recently been on the government’s radar for their alleged nature of promoting gambling internally.
Further, the industry also raised concerns over these companies evading GST and indulging in cryptocurrency frauds.
“The decision to appoint MeitY as the nodal ministry to regulate the online gaming sector will bring about regulatory certainty and growth to the industry,” Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) said in a tweet.
Recently, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Chandrasekhar had said the potential of Indians being exposed to online gaming that have harmful information and violates law has been on the rise.
As per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the online gaming intermediaries need to observe diligence while offering services, otherwise they would be liable for third-party information or data or any communication link hosted by them.
