Form of words:
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sushil Kumar Modi has urged the Modi government to regulate and tax online gaming as the “boom” sector is becoming a “major addiction” especially among the youth.
“Online gaming is becoming a huge addiction. I want to highlight that there is definitely a regulatory shortfall in this sector like the crypto industry,” Modi said in Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour on Friday.
“Therefore I would request the Government of India to (impose) a similar tax on online gaming. Secondly, I ask the government to create a comprehensive framework of regulation for online gaming,” said Modi, a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar.
“Otherwise, we would not be able to stop our youth from becoming online gaming addicts.”
Modi made the remarks while raising the issue of “the boom in online gaming which has become a big problem for the youth in this country”.
“Crores of youth have become addicted to this online gaming. Since it is online, it is very difficult to stop kids from getting addicted to online gaming. And now this online gaming has been turned into gambling or betting.” “And now there is a dispute, is it a game of skill or is it a game of chance?”
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu agreed that it was a “big threat”, and asked Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav to heed Modi’s suggestions and consult the Law Ministry on it.
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Number
Sushil Kumar Modi also offered some numbers to make his point about the growing “addiction” of online gaming in India.
“I would like to inform the House that during pre-Covid, the weekly time on mobile gaming was two and a half hours. 11 percent of the total smartphone time was spent on gaming. And during the lockdown it has increased from two and a half hours to four hours,” he said without citing the data source.
“And as of today more than 43 crore users/people are on online gaming. And by 2025, the estimate will increase to 65.7 crore (sic). And the revenue earned on account of online gaming was Rs 13,600 crore, which is likely to increase to Rs 29,000 crore in 2025,” he said.
He said the number of app downloads (India mobile game downloads) in the first quarter of 2020, pre-covid, stood at 1.86 billion, which increased to 3 billion during the third quarter of 2020.
The BJP leader said that Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala and several other states had banned online gaming, but were struck down by the high courts.
“And games like Ludo King, which we all played in our childhood, now crores of people are playing Ludo King, Poker, Dream11 etc based on the cards,” he said.
An earlier version of the report erroneously stated that the statement was made during Question Hour. Modi was speaking during zero hour. Error sorry.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyay)
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