In India, more than 500,000 million people are connected to each other on a daily basis because of advances in mobile technology. The internet has provided Indians with access to a variety of online venues and products that were previously unavailable, and online gambling is one of the key industries to benefit from this. But as we know gambling in India is illegal and is a punishable offence, so what about these online gambling platforms are they legal or not and if they are legal so how to find a trustworthy online gambling operator? As this place is prone to fraud relative activities.
The first law that prohibited gambling was The Public Gambling Act from 1867, stating that gambling is illegal in any place and the penalty for breaking this law is a fine of ₹200 or imprisonment of up to 3 months. Additionally, this Act prohibits visiting gambling houses… However, gambling laws have not been updated often ever since that date, and the law does not define what gambling is and, due to the time when it was stated, does not address online gambling at all. In this sense, online gambling is not illegal in India as there’s no federal law that forbids gambling online. Casino gaming is regulated under state-wise anti-gambling laws in India (“gaming enactments”). Only the state of Nagaland regulates online games of skill. The Nagaland Prohibition of gambling and promotion and regulation of online games of skills act, 2016 (“Nagaland Act”) categories online poker as a game of skill and skill-based games have been claimed to be not gambling by the Indian judiciary.
So online casino is legal in India, as the legislation is mainly based on the state’s laws as well as its interpretations. Local online gambling websites could face shutdown and fine, and it is highly unlikely that anyone would try to open an online casino operating within India. But now what if a person, sitting in India who believes that he possesses some amount of good luck and mental ability and want to try that luck in a casino but has some physical restraint, what he or she should do? To solve that problem you can make use of an online casino aggregator. Winvio India is one of the most popular online casino review platforms in the country and provides overview listings of all the real money online casinos available to Indians. When selecting an online casino for real money gaming, pay close attention to these points:
- Game selection
- Payment methods
- Customer service
- Bonuses
- Look and feel
Casino aggregators carefully analyse experiences from real money online casino players and collect reviews from players who have played at any online casino. All the providers listed by casino aggregators are eCogra certified. eCogra is a London-based internationally approved testing agency. They have been in the business for 5 years and offer a proven trustworthy service.
As the legislation has not been updated in years and every state has the right to interpret it in its way, it is safe to say that online gambling sites that operate from countries outside India are not to face any charges. Many well established online casinos located in Europe are currently considering whether to enter India and many have already opened online casinos catering Indian market, which is promising news for Indian players.
Once the online gambling industry gains more awareness of Indian players´ interests and preferences, the competition will increase and customized offers are likely to occur.
In the case of State Of Andhra Pradesh vs K. Satyanarayana & Ors (1968 AIR 825, 1968 SCR (2) 387) the court allowed the establishment to collect a small fee for running and maintaining the same for a game of skills, like rummy, which means that rummy which is played is considered as a game of skill and is not gambling, this case helps in the present report as rummy is one the most online played casino games and skill-based games are not considered as gambling which implies that it is completely legal to operate these kinds of applications. This case further helps us to understand the difference between skilled based games and luck-based as the Indian judiciary has defined skilled based games to be legal and can be played, so online casinos have both kinds of games skilled-based and luck-based.
So to conclude it can be said that the Legal Status of Online casinos in India is completely legal and it further depends on the state to state basis as gambling is a state subject, and states can make their laws regarding it or can follow the central act.
