Industry body IAMAI bids to form a self-regulatory body for online gaming

The Internet and Mobile Association of India, the industry body representing consumer internet companies, on Friday said that it was "best suited" to form a Self-Regulatory Organisation for online gaming.
 
As per a gazette notification issued earlier this week, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has become the nodal ministry to govern online gaming industry. This move clears the way for a policy on such online gaming, which is expected in next two weeks. 
 
Business Standard on December 19 reported the ministry's plans to come up with a policy for online gaming and set up a self regulatory body for the sector.

 

Reacting to the developments, Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI said, “Given our hands-on experience in running a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting mandated and registered SRO for Online Curated Content Companies and another industry driven SRO with the support of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for the EduTech Sector we are best suited to set up and manage the Online Gaming SRO. Also, given our wide range of membership in the online games of skill segment, we would be able to pull various types of skill based online gaming firms into the SRO."
 
The association is also of the view that matters relating to online gaming going to MeitY is a strong signal by the government to encourage this segment to grow in a regulated and orderly fashion while at the same time create proper institutional mechanisms for redressal of consumer grievances.

 
Currently estimated at $2.2 billion, India's online real-money gaming market is poised to reach a value of $7 billion by FY26, according to the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), an industry body. The market's current compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is about 27 per cent, making it the fastest-growing segment in the $24-billion media & entertainment space.
 
Established in 2004, the IAMAI is a not-for-profit industry body and the country's only organization representing the digital services industry with over 400 Indian and multinational corporations as its members,
 
The gaming industry came under scrutiny after the proliferation of games like cards, casinos, and fantasy sports among the youth led to addiction and financial losses, with some reported cases of suicide.

 
As reported earlier, the upcoming policy for online gaming is online gaming is likely to mandate an age verification mechanism and know-your-customer (KYC) norms for all real-money games.