Why govt. of India should regulate online betting

The online betting market in India is booming Millions of new players are joining the ranks of online betting sites every single month and the government of India is turning a blind eye to it Its no wonder that the Indian government is passive the laws surrounding online betting in India are vague and unclear Even the most astute legal scholar could be forgiven for asking himself is online betting legal in India But the ignorance of the Indian government towards the issue of online betting means that players and operators in the industry have created their own rulesThe online betting market is currently an underground economy where various international betting sites are operating without legal status or guidelines and collecting profits without taxation Is this really what we want for India or is there a better solutionIndia as a regulated online betting marketWith the right amount of political motivation India could become a regulated online betting marketThere are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about what it means to regulate online betting Heres what a regulated market does and does not doA regulated market does not prohibit online betting It wont make online betting go away and it wont magically convince people to stop betting onlineHowever it will help the government control online betting It will set certain restrictions as to who can and cannot participate in online betting both when it comes to betting operators and players Regulations will bring transparency to an industry shrouded in darkness Right now the government of India doesnt know how many people are engaged in online betting on a regular basis Without a regulatory body to keep track we simply have no way of knowing this figureThe only thing we know is that the number of online betting players in India is enormous We know this because the number of people searching for betting related search terms on Google is publicly availableFor example there are around 15 million people in India who search for Bet365 one of the biggest betting sites in the world every single monthAnd lets not even mention all the other betting sites and betting related search terms that people could be usingSo by looking at these figures we can deduce that there are millions of people in India who are actively engaged in online betting every single monthThat is a huge amount of people And the government has no way of keeping track of these players to ensure that they are betting responsibly or imposing taxes on the betting operatorsThe solutionThe solution is to introduce a set of regulations and to transform India into a socalled regulated market Similar regulations have been imposed in other countries and this has had a positive impact on their respective economies as well as the populations as a wholeNotable examples include the UK Gambling Commission the Malta Gambling Authority and the Betting Control amp Licensing Board of KenyaAs you can see there is a wide range of countries that have introduced regulations to online betting why cant India do the same and reap the amazing benefitsConsulting the expertsWe reached out to Indian betting expert Tomesh the editor at one of Indias largest online betting informational sites MyBettingin to ask him his opinion about online betting regulationsWhat are the greatest benefits of regulating the online betting industryIf we regulate online betting providers it will bring an entire industry which is currently shrouded in confusion into the lightSome of the benefits we will see areThousands of new jobs created in both the private and public sectors the betting operators need highskilled corporate staff and the Indian gambling authority would need a body of regulatory staffA new stream of tax revenue for the government the government could tax the gambling revenue from licensed betting operators at the standard business tax rate of 30 This money could be used to fund public projects such as roads schools and hospitalsAbility to encourage responsible gambling It is inevitable that some players become problem gamblers A better regulatory environment would allow the government to keep track of these people and give them the help they need to escape addictionAre there any downsides to online betting regulationsThe biggest potential downside is that you could see more people engage in online betting when the legal situation becomes more clear and transparentThis can be curbed by imposing bans on online betting advertisements on TV and in public spacesWhen done correctly imposing regulations on the online betting industry has very few downsidesWe know this because we can look and learn from what they have done in other parts of the world Regulating the online betting industry has been an unequivocal success story in countries all over Europe and AsiaAccording to Tomesh the benefits of having a regulated betting market as opposed to our currently fragmented and complicated legal situation seem to outweigh any disadvantagesImposing regulations are beneficial for all parties The government the operators and most importantly the playersKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever