Fantasy Sports Industry Has Got an IPL Boost but It Needs a Coherent Policy Going Forward

Last week, reports emerged that the Union government has set up an inter-ministerial panel to regulate online gaming. This is a good thing. Online gaming is a popular emerging sector with great economic potential that has thus far been hamstrung by regulatory uncertainty. One of the reasons behind this uncertainty lies in the nomenclature. As a catch-all term, online gaming sometimes includes everything from online casinos to fantasy sports platforms such as Dream11. This is unfortunate given that Indian courts have repeatedly distinguished games of skill (such as Dream11) from games of chance (such as online casinos). Primary among the panel’s responsibilities would thus be to build on this distinction by formulating a mechanism to determine whether a game format is skill-dependent. In addition to regulatory clarity, this will also help the nascent industry distance itself from gambling.