Online gaming ban is not the solution, says Telangana govt official

Online gaming ban: Telangana was the first state in India to put a blanket ban on online gaming in order to prohibit people from playing gambling games online. Then earlier this year, Telangana state officials said that they were planning to come up with new rules for online gaming and fantasy gaming that would encourage self-regulation and foster game development in the state. Now a senior Telangana state official has said that a blanket online gaming ban is not the only solution to counter the online gambling trend that officials have witnessed in the state.

‘Blanket ban on online games is not a solution and the sector can bring a lot of opportunities to drive the economy, create jobs and enhance productivity,’ Telangana Principal Secretary for IT, electronics and communications Jayesh Ranjan told PTI today.

Ranjan while speaking at a gaming seminar organised by IAMAI said the ban was driven by a game of chance that led to addiction of some people and ruined their families. "We always had that clarity that blanket banning is not the solution. One needs to make a distinction between game of skill and game of chance,” he said.

"Some of these reasons, particularly from law enforcement agencies, have been a push back about banning or stopping people from playing these games, is largely driven by game of chance," he added.

Apart from hinting towards the future of online gaming in the state, Ranjan also said that skill development had taken a back seat in the past 18 months as skills could not be acquired just by listening to lectures. "How do you pick up skills by gamifying the entire context and helping candidates navigate through those sessions in a user-friendly way? This is one major advancement in the way skills training will be delivered in future," Ranjan said at the seminar.

Talking about a way forward, Ranjan said the state government was planning to come up with a policy for online gaming for the state and that the state was also building one of the best infrastructures for gaming, animation and special effects called Image Tower, which is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2023.. "We don't want to rush something which can be potentially challenged in a court or which may lead to some amount of public misunderstanding and an outcry," PTI reported Ranjan as saying.