‘Game-friendly’ India leads online gambling growth amid COVID-19 pandemic: report, Marketing & Advertising News, ET BrandEquity

Emerging markets are decisively “game-friendly,” even during the coronavirus pandemic—and this is more evident in Asia, particularly in India, which has leveled up and is now leading the online gambling growth.

Real money games grow 35% in India during pandemic

Much has changed during the pandemic, and even people’s consumption habits have been greatly affected by COVID-19 as many consumers are now turning to technology and opting for the digital route to complete many of their daily activities from the safety of their homes, including entertainment and recreation.

This is evident particularly in mobile-friendly India, whose online gambling market has experienced a remarkable growth during the global lockdowns, according to a new ENV Media report tackling offshore gambling licenses and regulated markets. The in-depth report offers interesting analysis on how the gambling industry has been faring so far in light of COVID-19.

And the numbers are outstanding, especially for “game-friendly” markets like India. India’s online gaming market reported a 35 percent increase in the number of real money games played on a monthly basis by an average user during the pandemic. This increase in player volume puts India on the top spot ahead of Russia (30 percent), Indonesia (26 percent), Brazil (23 percent), United States (13 percent), United Kingdom (11 percent), Japan and China (7 percent each), Canada and Germany (6 percent each), South Korea (5 percent), and France (7 percent). That’s not surprising, given the steady growth in popularity that online roulette real money games are seeing in India in recent times.

“The above chart showed the growth of online and mobile gaming in many prominent markets during and after COVID-19 changed consumption patterns. While emerging economies were quicker to react in volume, established markets succumbed to the drop in total gambling revenues (for private businesses, public monopolies, and exchequers),” ENV Media analysts explained.

Why India needs to be more forward-looking with online gaming

There’s no denying that online gambling’s popularity has already reached new heights in recent years, thanks to innovation and the pandemic. The question that remains is how India’s government can fully harness these wins and utilize it to boost the country’s economy.

At the moment, it is up to the state governments to come up with their own ways of governing this nascent industry. But as legal experts told SevenJackpots recently, “It is always more politically expedient for the Indian legislators to ban rather than regulate gambling in the country,” which has only created more confusion among industry stakeholders who are left scratching their heads on how to operate.

What government officials in India can do is take a look at how mature markets are operating. Take Sweden, for example. The country has already transitioned to a regulated market and places importance on responsible gaming via a national self-exclusion program and placing responsible gambling buttons on all gaming pages, among other measures.For a market like India, which has a thriving online gaming market governed by outdated laws, having a uniformed regulatory framework that allows the market to keep up with the rapidly changing technologies give regulators flexibility to upgrade regulatory measures for the benefit of the players, the operators, and the government. As the analysts at ENV Media pointed out:“India is a particularly emblematic case of similarly impending regulatory needs. The prohibition of betting is widely seen to have been ineffective. In such contexts, certain authority recommendations cannot be overlooked. Emerging markets (India in particular but not only) will benefit from creating their own Central regulatory framework, a Gambling oversight body, and a Consumer Data protection regulation.”