AIGF urges Rajasthan to bring skill-based virtual games under draft online gaming bill

Online skill gaming body AIGF has suggested the Rajasthan government to widen the scope of its draft law for virtual sports to bring different formats of online skill-based games like rummy and poker under the regulation.

The All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), in response to the Rajasthan Virtual Online Sports (Regulation) Bill 2022, has said that the scope of the bill should be extended beyond fantasy sports and e-sports.

The body has suggested that any government recognition or exemption contemplated should be granted uniformly to all games of skill and not only to fantasy sports and esports.

''We submit that all online games of skill including poker, rummy and casual games should be considered for any such regulation. We submit that such a step will be incomplete if only esports and fantasy sports operators are considered,'' the AIGF said in its submission to the state government.

The Rajasthan government issued the draft bill this month wherein it proposes to regulate esports platforms and bar them from conducting simulated sports that are not recognised by any accredited sporting federation.

The draft also proposes to regulate fantasy sports where the winning outcome is based on the performance of any real world team or a player.

Gaming industry sources said that skill-based games should not be equated with fantasy sports.

''Games of skill like rummy, poker and others have been played all over the country with judicial recognition for a much longer time and any consideration for 'safe-harbour' cannot exclude these verticals of the skill-gaming industry. ''Therefore, we submit that any government recognition or exemption contemplated should be granted uniformly to all games of skill and not only to fantasy sports and esports,'' AIGF said.

The industry body has defined online skill games as any format or game, played over the internet, including through an internet website or a mobile application, that has a preponderance of skill and is one in which success depends principally upon the superior knowledge, training, coordination, attention, experience and adroitness of the player.

The online skill gaming body has requested the state government to change the name of the bill to regulate the entire online skill gaming sector and replace ''virtual online sports'' from some parts of the draft bill with ''online skill game''.

An email query sent to AIGF seeking details of their submission did not elicit any reply.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)