Meghalaya State Government Set To Regulate Online Gambling

The Indian state of Meghalaya has made an important step towards regulating online gambling, as the government approved the “Regulation of Gaming Ordinance, 2021.”

James Sangma, spokesperson for the government of Meghalaya, motivated the decision: “In order to regulate gaming within the state and to bring revenue to the state government, we felt it necessary to enact a law for the same, and therefore, the cabinet has approved the draft ordinance.

Online gaming is an industry which is quite a big industry in the entire world and today in Meghalaya it is going on and unfortunately we don’t have a regulatory mechanism but it is something already going on, so we have to have measures to regulate that.”

The law and finance departments have given their approval for the draft ordinance, which sets up the framework for the future development of the online gambling industry in this state.

Any company that will want to operate in this sector in Meghalaya will have to get a license from the state government. The operators will then have to follow strict guidelines, otherwise the authorities will be able to take action against them.

Illegal gambling and sports betting is still a significant problem in several Indian states, due to the lack of regulatory framework for the industry. The problems arise especially during traditional festivals, which are often associated with intense gambling activity.

In order to distract people from illegal gambling, the West Godavari district police department in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh set up a cricket tournament during the Sankranti festival at the beginning of January.

But the long-term solution is regulating gambling in the country, both online and offline. The government seems to support that idea, as licensing gambling activities could bring an important revenue stream to the state.

In November, the Indian Minister of Finance, Anurag Thakur, declared that his country should seriously consider legalizing and regulating gambling instead of restricting or banning the activity.

Source: “Govt to regulate online gaming“. The Shillong Times. January 15, 2021.