New Delhi: Banks and financial services firms during a joint meeting with the Department of Financial Services and the IT ministry on Friday sought detailed guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to implement the ban on online money gaming, sources said.
The firms also sought more time to put in place mechanisms to comply with the ban, they said.
The government has banned all forms of online money gaming by bringing in the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act after repeated complaints of people dying by suicide due to heavy monetary losses.
Sources present in the meeting said the discussion was largely around familiarisation with provisions of the Act and understanding the manner in which banks and financial services companies propose to implement it.
“Transitional measures, if any, along with challenges they expect in implementation of the Act’s provisions were discussed. Everyone committed to implement it and have sought specific and detailed guidelines from the RBI on implementation of the rules. They have sought time for backend compliance mechanisms to settle in,” an official source said.
The government is in the process of notifying the Act after which it will come up with rules to implement it.
The Act seeks to prohibit advertisement related to online money games and bars banks and financial institutions from transferring funds for any of such games.
Advertising of money games can attract imprisonment up to two years and/or fine up to Rs 50 lakh. Facilitating financial transactions related to money games can lead to imprisonment up to three years and/or fine up to Rs 1 crore.
Repeat offences attract enhanced penalties, including 3-5 years’ imprisonment and fines up to Rs 2 crore.
Meanwhile, major online money gaming players have fallen in line with the government’s move and voluntarily announced shutting down of their money-based gaming services. The challenge for the government, however, remains in checking foreign-based online money gaming and betting platforms.
As per an estimate, 45 crore people in the country have lost around Rs 20,000 crore in a year after getting addicted to online money games.
