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It shouldn’t come as news that online gambling has been on the rise the past decade. Spinning on slot machines, betting on sports and playing table games against real dealers over a livestream has absolutely exploded in popularity. The boom of internet gambling started off in Europe, but has quickly spread to countries all over the world. Nonetheless India.
With limited internet connections and slow speeds, India and its massive population of 1.4 billion people have, however, been late to the show. In 2016, only 25% percent of Indian residents had access to the internet. The 5 years since then have seen a substantial increase as today internet usage has reached 55.40%. Ranked as the 117th country, this is still low compared to the rest of the world though.
Gambling laws in India are generally restrictive, but most are outdated and don’t cover internet gambling. Only 3 out of 29 states have made online gambling an illegal activity. In other states it’s a grey area where users cannot be penalized for playing casino or betting on sports online. With increased accessibility, this has naturally led to more Indians gambling over the internet.
This also means that online casinos in India have been growing in numbers. The companies are not located on Indian soil of course as that would be illegal, but they are operating from other jurisdictions. However, people in India are being targeted through Indian friendly deposit methods, Hindi language, support for rupees as a currency and sometimes also the exclusivity of only allowing Indians to play at the site.
As you may know, the European market is becoming all the more saturated with hundreds if not thousands of online casinos to choose from and harsh regulations popping up left and right. In Sweden, players aren’t allowed to receive bonus offers and in the UK, people can’t play bonus buy slots. Expensive gambling licenses also have to be purchased and rented, making the market difficult to profit from.
In India it’s a different story. Where India is today is where Europe was around 6 - 7 years ago. Gambling operators aren’t facing the same competition and they aren’t facing the harsh regulations. Add 1.4 billion people to that, which is equivalent to all of the countries in Europe times two and a massive potential reveals itself.
Online gambling has rapidly increased in the country the past couple of years, but India is still a young player in the game. Looking only at internet connections, it is expected that the number of internet users will grow to 970 million by 2025. That’s about a 200 million increase from where we are today, which is more than the entire population of Germany, UK and Scandinavia combined.
While only the future holds the answer to the direction in which Indian states are going in terms of liberalism and restrictiveness to online gambling, the country is today unquestionably a market full of potential.
