- Financial Express
Online gaming: guardrails for sustainable growth
By Dhanendra Kumar
India is one of the world’s largest markets in online gaming. We have a youthful population; the median age is 28 years which is likely to remain for the next 50 years. The young population perceive gaming as an attractive platform of entertainment. During the pandemic, the usage of online gaming soared by 65%. This surge is driven by the increasing youth population, explosion in phones and tablets, cheap data and new gaming genres.
Realizing the potential, the government has been working towards forming regulatory mechanisms to facilitate responsible and sustainable growth of this industry, commensurate with socio-economic and cultural ethos, safeguarding consumer interests and curbing the proliferation of illegal offshore gambling sites. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar has stated recently that three types of online games will be curbed in India: that involve betting; harmful to the user; and resulting in addiction.