Google Play in anti-gambling dustup with India’s Paytm

Google’s gambling policies briefly forced Indian online payment processor Paytm out of the Google Play marketplace, and while the app is back, this fight appears far from over.

Early Friday, tech giant Google issued a blog post reminding the world of its strict no-gambling policies for Google Play apps, adding that these policies also apply “if an app leads consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes.”

Paytm apparently violated these rules due to a promotion on its payment app in which users received ‘stickers’ for each transaction. Users were urged to collect five stickers and redeem them for Paytm Cashback. This ‘Paytm Cricket League’ was timed to coincide with the Indian Premier League’s 2020 season, which gets underway Saturday in the United Arab Emirates.

The expulsion of Paytm’s app set off a brief panic among its hundreds of millions of users in India, forcing Paytm to reassure customers that their funds were safe. A few hours later, Paytm’s app was restored to the Google Play market after the company removed the offending promotion.