Ever since the affordable internet revolution started in India with the entry of Reliance Jio in 2016, the e-gaming sector has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of users as well as revenue. According to an estimate, the online gaming market in India is currently worth over $400 million and it will keep on rising as the majority of Indian population is young and tech savvy.
One of the key sectors in e-gaming, is online gambling in India. Online gambling includes the likes of poker, casinos and sports betting. Just like e-gaming on the whole, the online gambling market has been increasing at a rapid pace.
Online casino laws in India
There have been various kinds of discussions around the legality of gambling and casinos in India. One of the reasons behind, is the fact that India has not many states which have physical casinos for the public. However, some Indian states like Goa, Sikkim and Daman have physical casinos. The public gambling act of 1976, allowed five star hotels, off-shore facilities to offer casinos in India and since then, the states like Goa and Sikkim have been operating casinos.
Talking about online gambling and casinos, there is no law in India that forbids users from playing. Hence, there are tens of online companies like Casino Captain, which have started to offer the option to play poker and casino in India. Even the IT act of 2000, which has very detailed laws allowing and disallowing certain online activities, has no mention of online gambling or casinos. Therefore, a lot of foreign companies have been offering services without any hassles in India.
The state of Sikkim, however, has allowed the companies/online platforms to offer real money for online gambling. That’s one of the reasons why the majority of the best online casinos in India, have their headquarters in the state of Sikkim.
How to find legal online casinos in India
Online casinos often have a legal registered number. You can find the registration number at the very bottom of the website or in the page which mentions terms and conditions. As earlier stated in this article, there are a very limited number of Indian companies operating in this space. So it’s most likely that you will see a company offering its services in India through a licence purchased in another country. In the online gambling space, licences from Malta Curaçao are most common. Other popular countries which offer the online gambling licences include Gibraltar, Antigua and Barbuda, and Panama.
The online casino platforms are often operated by a registered company. If you are keen, you can find details about the company and look up online to see their registered status, registration country, their directors and other details.
Another way of finding out if the website is secure and legal is by checking their ssl certificate. In address bar, if a website loads with https, that shows the secure status of a website and implies that it’s secure to carry out financial transactions on the website.
Also Check :
- Best apps, websites for online cricket, football, eSports betting
- Should India legalise online gambling?