On Valentine’s Day, the Karnataka High Court removed one barrier to the growth of the high-potential online skill-based gaming business.
The court ruled in favour of petitioners representing various online gaming platforms and upheld the differences that separated gaming from gambling. In the process, it quashed various sections of the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act 2021 that seemed to blur the differences.
With this verdict, the Karnataka High Court becomes the third one in southern India to align with several judgements of the Supreme Court, which hold that games of skill do not come within the ambit of Entry 34 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, which allows states to regulate “betting and gambling.”
If gaming is not gambling and involves the use of skill, whether physical or mental, the state cannot arbitrarily place roadblocks in the path of this industry.
In her recent Union budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked about the creation of a task force to investigate and better understand the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics sector, an announcement that has largely been lost in the din over other initiatives — especially capex increase.
This is what she said in paragraph 81 of her relatively short speech: “The animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic (AVGC) sector offers immense potential to employ youth. An AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders will be set-up to recommend ways to realise this and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand.”
High time. This article will focus on gaming, even though it may involve other aspects of AVGC in software development, because it is turning out to be a multi-billion-dollar area of opportunity not only for skilled game creators, but also for allied industries that support gaming, including semiconductors, banking, fintech, and telecom.
Read More at https://swarajyamag.com/business/whats-holding-back-indian-gaming
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