India Calls For Offshore Casino Payment Block
According to the regulatory body, international operators are offering their services to locals under the guise of providing innocent entertainment, whilst all the while secretively fuelling the flames of illegal funds changing hands and creating a playing field for all manners of other clandestine goings-on.
Devious By Mere Association
Some of the international operators to have been accused of everything from money laundering to the violation of India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act, include well-known and reputable companies like Bet365, BetFair, and 1xbet.
The operators are being accused of luring Indian players into the trap of gambling addiction. But then again, it’s not as if the AIGF holds any objections towards gambling in and of itself. It appears to only grow unhappy in the event that money isn’t headed in its own direction, but into the hands of international businesses instead.
It’s reasonable to say then that the issue isn’t as much player protection as what it is greed.
AIGF Pushes For Keeping It Local
Everything aside, India does not allow online gambling on a national level. The AIGF now argues that it is time for the country to legalise online gambling and betting activities on a national level, but only when local operators are offering those services.
Whatever the reasoning behind the appeals, government isn’t showing any signs of prioritising the legalisation of online gambling. This poses an entire set of problems in its own right. Players are now taking to local fly-by-night bet shops purely based on the fact that these businesses are locally owned endeavours. International, above-board operators are being shunned for no reason other than the fact that Indian nationals do not own them.
The country’s players have reacted with mixed opinions but most people agree that the time for proper legislation is now long overdue.
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