Online Gambling in India

Nevertheless, gambling in India has flourished like never before. Indian players are amongst the most eager ones to spend their money on online casino games and win big payouts in return.

Therefore, if you’re an Indian player who’s unsure about the gambling regulation, laws and limits but you enjoy gambling and you would like to join an online casino, you should consider the following information on online gambling in India.

Online Gambling in India

Given the fact that India has several states, it is only natural that not all states would agree on one law regarding gambling. That being said, you should know that even though lawmakers are not fond of the idea of gambling, there are laws that actually could provide you with the information you need.

In 1867, the Public Gambling Act was implemented, prohibiting gambling in ‘common gaming houses’, referring to land-based casino gambling. Fortunately, there were no online casinos at that time, so this Act has its holes. Therefore, some states have used these holes in order to enact other state-specific laws for gambling, such as Sikkim and Goa.

In fact, Goa was the first one to publish the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act in 1976, permitting slot machines in hotels. After revising the Act in 1992, and then again in 1996, Goa has decided to legalize land-based casino gambling.

Sikkim, on the other hand, enacted two acts for gambling, the 2002 Sikkim Casinos Act and the 2007 Sikkim Casino Games Commencement Rules, allowing operators to start their gambling operations in hotels.

Sikkim and Other States

When it comes to online gambling, Sikkim is one of the states which allows it and the other one is Nagaland. Online gambling in Sikkim is entirely legal, of course, with certain limitations.

The Act implemented in 2002 allowed the government to give gambling licenses, while another act implemented in 2005 limited gambling to certain gambling houses and in certain days. Online casino players from Sikkim are limited in another way, as well, and are in fact, only allowed to play games of skill, such as blackjack, poker and roulette.

Nagaland, on the other hand, has two laws regarding gambling sites, the Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Act, implemented in 2015 and the one implemented one year later, the Nagaland Prohibition of Gaming and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Rules.

These laws basically permit Nagaland casino players to only play games of skill, and never games of chance. There are plenty of games allowed, though, including poker, virtual sports, virtual monopoly games, rummy, virtual sports fantasy league games and many others.

As evident, even though allowed to gamble online, players from Nagaland and Sikkim are very limited, after all. They cannot play slots, let’s say, or other cool online games players worldwide can enjoy. Therefore, the most cunning players have found their way to make use of offshore online casinos. Since there are no laws that say online gambling is illegal, Indian online casino players are allowed to play and offshore operators to operate in India from their respective jurisdiction.

In short, Indian players are allowed to place bets at offshore online casinos, only if the online casino is regulated and licensed by a world-known and trusted gambling authority.