India to ban games involving betting, user harm and addiction

The Indian government has prepared a new framework that will ban three types of online games in the country that involve betting, could pose potential harms to users and involve addictive characteristics.

As reported by Asia News International (via PocketGamer.biz), in addition to artificial intelligence (AI) technology, online games in India will also be subjected to stricter rules soon.

“For the first time we have prepared a framework regarding online gaming, in that we will not allow three types of games in the country,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology, in a statement to ANI. ‘’Games that involve betting or can be harmful to the user and that involves a factor of addiction will be banned in the country,” he added.

The news comes months after a group of 44 Indian game makers and esports companies published an open letter in January, asking the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology (MeitY) to distinguish video games from gambling.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Rajeev Chandrasekhar denied Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s claims that they threatened to shut down the social media platform in the country over non-compliance with account restriction requests.