The Indian market represents the final frontier for the online gaming community, with the potential market worth of billions to the local economy and international operators. Our own Stephanie Tower sat down with Ranjana Adhikari, Media Entertainment & Gaming Co Head of Nishith Desai Associates to discuss which direction India is going in.

Ranjana laid out what the gambling industry’s landscape looks like. “We are predominately an AI gaming market,” she said. “We have legacy casinos in three states, mass union territories, but that’s not the key market when you are looking at the future of gaming in India. The real market is in AI gaming and we do have some really popular products today spanning right from card games like rummy and poker and right into the close cousin of sports betting, you’ve got daily fantasy sports becoming immensely popular. We have seen a lot of interest coming in from international operators as well for games and sports betting products.”

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While the Indian market is showing tremendous potential, Ranjana pointed out regulation is needed to develop the industry in India. “When you are looking at legislation in India, even in a normal world in a non-COVID world it takes a lot of time for a piece of legislation to find the voice of reason,” she said. “Then the opinion of the political parties and then becoming law, it’s a rather long process. The law commission of India have been given the task of looking at whether legalizing horse betting and gambling in general.”