The rapid spread of mobile communication in the subcontinent has created a market of more than half a billion users connected to the Internet on a daily basis. The World Wide Web provides Indians with access to a variety of online services and internet commodities that were previously unknown. One of the major economic activities benefiting from this situation is internet gambling.
Independent sources, often quoted by the Indian press, calculate that more than 40 percent of Indian internet users bet regularly, while 80 percent of all adult Indians play a game of hazard a few times per year. This denotes that India is on the verge of overtaking Great Britain in terms of the quantities of high rollers compared to the population. Read on to understand what internet bet is, and why so many Indians are turning to the world of internet betting.
Putting a bet on the internet — how does it work?
Gambling online signifies that internet users can place bets and gain or lose their hard-earned money. It is almost the same as betting in a true casino, with the only dissimilarity is that it takes place in an intangible realm.
However, the selection of wagers sometimes exceeds that of real betting shops, which usually offer sports punts, casino betting and skill games like poker and blackjack.
But internet casinos not only expand the range of wagers, but also offer the possibility to choose between different methods (bank transfers, credit and debit cards, UPI, cryptocurrencies and e-wallets) to pay the stakes and collect the winnings.
The most popular online punter games among Indian gamblers.
All card games have always been the favorite of Indian gamblers. Both the games have been implemented online to offer an immersive experience comparable to that of playing in real life. However, regardless of the card games, online casinos are using them more than before, with professional human croupiers and dealers, alluring studios, and the ability to compete in real time with other real players.
This is the kind of experience that online gambling apps provide with casino games like classic blackjack, roulette or baccarat, or the more local “Andar Bahar” and “Indian Flush”.
Why are online punters apps not available in the subcontinent?
The new Apple Store and Google guidelines have banished “India” from the places where gambling apps can be installed. While these types of betting apps are available in several countries like Italy, France and the United States, other less permissive countries like India have emanated guidelines to prohibit this kind of application software.
For this reason, several specialized remittance systems were latterly shut off in the subcontinent after initially being available to Indian players.
How legal is online betting in India?
The first fact to keep in mind regarding the legality of betting in India is that this activity is a government matter and therefore only Indian states are allowed to regulate gambling on their territory. An 1867 law, the Gambling Act, still in force, interdict anyone from operating, being responsible for, or entering a betting establishment.
The second point to note is that the legislation classifies wagers as either games based on abilities or games based on possibilities. To give an example, the High Court has ruled that “Rummy” is not based on possibilities such as the ‘three cards’ also known as ‘Flush’ or ‘Brag’.
The third element to appraise is the peculiarity of the IT Act of 2000 (the law that governs cyber affairs in the subcontinent) does not contain the terms gambling or betting, so its interpretation may vary according to certain judges and prosecutors.
The implications of this uncertain juridical framework are utterly confusing. Betting on games based on possibilities is illegal, while betting on games based on abilities is legal, but it is difficult to decide whether a game belongs to the first or second category. Some Indian jurisdictions such as Sikkim have announced (in late 2010) but still not concretized their intention to license online gambling. The concrete result is that (in the absence of a clear restriction under the Information Technology law) no national casino is able to legally operate or advertise its services, while it is technically not illegal for foreign companies (also known as offshore business) to develop websites targeting Indian punters.
Even if Andhra Pradesh and Telangana explicitly interdict all online gambling to their own citizens in early 2020, the legal restriction is enforceable only on domestic operators and not foreign ones.
This is the reason why despite the existing legislation, illegal or “gray zone” online casinos have a large customer base across the country. Indeed, it must be remembered that the Indian betting activities turnover more than US$60 milliard annually, fifty per cent of which is wagered illegally.
In this chaotic and untrustworthy environment, it is quite impossible for the layman to find a reputable, safe and trustworthy online casino to indulge in these borderline activities. The only source of specific information to distinguish the various illegal portals, or even worse the fraudulent ones that offer rigged games, are few blogs that are often published by avid gamblers.
This is exactly the case with Casinojungli.com, an online resource that tries to provide its readers with up-to-date information about the licensed casinos and legal offshore companies that can be trusted.Checking online resources and reviews before you start betting at a particular site is the only way to avoid unpleasant surprises.
