India is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world when it comes to online gambling. It should not come as a surprise, as the country is home to roughly 1.4 billion people, with plenty of them seeing online gambling as a good pastime activity.
The internet penetration in the country rises day by day, and so is the popularity of online casinos. Moreover, the expected economic growth of the country means that people can now afford to place wagers online.
With all that being said, let’s take a closer look at the specifics of the iGaming market in India, and how the market grows with each passing year.
This is where things get a bit complicated. Even though the online casino traffic India seems very well saturated, things are not quite straightforward.
Online gambling in India varies region by region. Each state in the country is free to make its own laws for gambling activities. As an example, certain states like Goa have legalized land-based casinos.
This doesn’t mean that there are no general laws that are valid on a national level. In that line, there are three types of legislation regarding gambling in general in India:
Sikkim is one region of India where online gambling is legal with the Online Gaming Regulation Act, but for now, it remains the only state in India to pass such a law.
We can say that the key thing you need to know when it comes to gambling in India is that there is no legislation in place that allows for any online gambling activities.
However, it is not illegal for offshore gambling operators to have sites that will accept Indian players. To this day, there is no case of someone in India being prosecuted or criminally charged for gambling on offshore online casinos.
Since online gambling is very popular among Indian punters, there are tons of reputable online casinos in the world that accept players from the country and offer specialized services for them.
Now that you are aware of India’s gambling legislation, it is also important to understand which payment methods online casinos integrate to attract and retain punters from the country.
As is the case with all other gambling markets in the world, there are certain payment systems that are more popular than others in India.
Payment methods are a very important pillar for the success of any gambling site that operates in India. When determining the success or popularity of a certain payment method, it is important to look at the following aspects:
With all that in mind, we can say that Paytm is the most popular payment method among Indian punters. It is an e-commerce payment system that is based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
Paytm is available in 11 languages and offers all kinds of online transaction services, including such at online casinos. Any international online casino that wishes to attract Indian punters needs to integrate Paytm into its payment method list.
Apart from Paytm, users in India are known to be fond of using the following payment methods for their online casino transactions:
India is a rapidly developing nation, and now it is home to roughly 700 million smartphone users. Moreover, internet penetration is at a very high level, meaning that you have all the ingredients for a successful mobile gambling market.
Online casinos have noticed this trend and they are sure to optimize their sites for mobile usage or create mobile apps that players from India will be able to enjoy.
Overall, we can conclude that India is one of the most exciting and emerging iGaming markets in the entire world.
The economic growth of the country means that players can now afford to enjoy their favourite pastime activity – online gambling.
One negative about all this is that there is still no general law that will allow online casinos to operate in India. Players are free to access offshore online gambling sites without facing any negative repercussions, but it seems that the way forward is to legalize online gambling.
There are plenty of benefits that come with a legal online gambling landscape – players’ safety at operators, bigger income for the government with taxes, more employed people in the sector, etc.