According to industry sources, the stakeholders of the gaming industry suggested a self-declaration mechanism for registration and a graded approach to KYC in a meeting with the IT ministry on Tuesday.

“The industry largely stated that powers given to the self-regulatory body will lead to significant delays to the launch of new games,” an official aware of the development said.

The ministry is likewise expected to release some guidelines to prevent a conflict of interest for the board of SRO.

The developments were confirmed by companies.

“We suggested a simple process of registration that relies on self-declaration and collecting basic information about a company, similar to what is already proposed in the Intermediary Guidelines for the OTT.” “This self-certification process does not require an engagement with the SRO to wait for confirmation before the launch of the game,” says Paavan Nanda, co-founder of the gaming platform WinZO.

Paavan Nanda added that the pre-registration process, which was proposed in the draught rules, might compromise the confidentiality of the information and lead to intellectual property (IP) leaks. The process may also lead to significant delays in launching the game.

“In case of any compromise, this would, in any event, be supplemented by the powers conferred on the self-regulatory body (SRO) to deal with grievance redressal and the prevention of harm to children,” he said.

Trivikraman Thampy, co-founder and CEO of gaming platform Games24x7, said, “There could be a first pre-registration step that maybe has a slightly less stringent criterion, and then within three months of pre-registration, the operator has to get the final registration for the game.”

The industry also asked the ministry to take a graded approach to the proposed know-your-customer (KYC) process.
They said that the users ought to be permitted to enrol on the platforms using a one-time password (OTP). If the spending goes above Rs 10,000, they should be approached to link their PAN and Aadhaar card with the account.

The industry welcomed the draught and the progress in regulating the sector.

“The meeting was fruitful, and we believe that both the government and industry have benefited from a clearer understanding of the future outlook for the gaming industry in light of the proposed rules. The framework offered by MeitY will go a long way towards creating a balanced environment for online gaming that provides for innovation within the confines of strong consumer protection standards,” said Roland Landers, CEO of the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF).

Dilsher Malhi, founder and CEO of Zupee, said, “We are confident the online gaming industry will greatly benefit from the proposed policy framework and will contribute significantly to the economic growth of India.”

Credit: Business Standard