The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns that took place all over the world affected global business in previously unprecedented ways.
During the lockdowns, businesses were forced to close, revenue was lost, people were being laid off left, right and center, and the whole global economy entered a prolonged downward spiral.
However, while most businesses were suffering due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, some industries were flourishing and reaching unprecedented new levels of business. One such industry is the online gaming sector in India.
How India’s Gaming Market Boomed During Covid-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns made it difficult for people all over the world (including right here in India) to go out and enjoy themselves in the same way that they used to do.
The societal lockdowns which had their beginnings in early 2020 and continued well into 2022 forced people to stay home and look for alternative sources of entertainment.
This means that companies which focused on remote entertainment such as Netflix grew more popular than ever before. And that includes online gaming companies which experienced previously unseen new customer growth.
According to our sources from MyCasino India, the total number of visitors to their online casino informational site was up by more than 500% when nationwide lockdowns were introduced.
This type of overnight growth doesn’t happen by coincidence – it happened because millions of people were stuck at home trying to find a way to spend their time and entertain themselves.
But one important question that comes to mind is, how will the government of India react to the enormous growth in popularity of casino games in India?
Will they regulate it, will they attempt to curtail it, or will they simply ignore it, as they have done up until now?
How Will Govt. of India React to Expanding Gaming Market?
India wasn’t the only country in the world to experience massive surges in online gambling interest during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
For example, the northern European country of Sweden also experienced massive interest in online gaming during the pandemic.
What the government then did was to put limits on sizes of welcome bonuses gaming operators could offer to new players – and put loss limits in place to ensure that gamblers did not lose more money than they could afford.
Sweden had the opportunity to do this, because it is a regulated gaming market. If India wants to pull a similar move, the government first needs to regulate online gaming – otherwise, it doesn’t have the authority to introduce sanctions on the gaming operators.
For a market like India, which has a thriving online gaming market governed by outdated laws, having a uniform regulatory framework that allows the need to keep up with rapidly changing technologies is good.
Will the Government Ban Online Gambling or Regulate It?
Once the Indian government recognises the gaming industry’s revenue size, player base, and taxable potential, more comprehensive legislation could be introduced.
Introducing gambling regulations would be able to help the government in managing a sector that is currently ripe with fraud, tax evasion, and problem-gambling issues that are being left unchecked because the government has no way to effectively deal with them.
Another element that the government considers is the potential tax opportunity. Recovering the economy from the effects of the recession.
It is critical for the government to assist in the recovery of the economy from the pandemic’s adverse effects, and a contribution from the gaming business might not be a terrible idea.
As a result, we anticipate a massive increase in the gambling sector in India. At the moment, state governments must devise their methods of governing this new business.
Indian lawmakers have always found it easier to prohibit rather than to regulate gambling in the country, which has further added to the confusion among business stakeholders who are unsure how to proceed.
Time will tell how the government chooses to proceed on this issue, but one thing is for sure, the longer the government chooses to ignore the issue, the larger it will become!
