HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, April 18: The UK India Business Council met with the Government of Meghalaya Cabinet minister James Sangma and several UK businesses to discuss the online gaming and sports betting landscape in the state. It also launched the UKIBC’s industry report: Gaming for Growth – India’s Sports and Gaming Market Potential.
The UKIBC’s Gaming Industry Index reveals Meghalaya to be the most gaming-friendly State in India. The Index measures the extent to which each state has legalised gaming and betting based on their stance on seven different games: lottery, horse racing, sports betting, poker, rummy, casino, and fantasy sports. Meghalaya scored 92.85 (on a scale of 0 to 100 where 100 is fully legalized) with licenses applicable in all seven games in both states. UK India Business Council, through its report, reveals how a clearer approach to regulation would attract FDI; create jobs and growth; combat corruption; enhance the integrity of sport; increase the tax revenue in the state, and support the state’s wider tourism sector. The report further proposes a series of recommendations to capture the large and growing opportunities for India to benefit from the sector’s growth.
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UKIBC managing director, Kevin McCole, said, “We applaud the Government of Meghalaya on its forward-thinking approach to the license of games of chance in the state, which will help to contribute greater revenues and bring jobs to the state. A regulated market also provides safeguards and protection for players, safeguards that are not available in the unregulated sector. Both the unregulated and regulated gaming sectors in India will continue to grow significantly. There are therefore strong reasons to work towards this growth taking place under regulations. To do so, we recommend the Government of India adopt the Law Commission’s 2018 recommendation that sports betting be regulated. Not least because it will attract FDI, stimulate domestic investment, create jobs, generate government revenue, tackle corruption, and enable responsible playing.”
In its report, the UKIBC makes several recommendations regarding the legalization and regulation of the gaming market across India in line with the Law Commission’s 2018 recommendations. It also contends that the gaming market is regulated centrally to bring uniformity to the sector. Each state can then decide whether it wants to be a state to allow gaming and to what extent, therefore retaining a suitable degree of autonomy.
