Google has announced plans to broaden its support for real-money games (RMG) on its app store, Google Play, in selected markets, including India, Mexico, and Brazil, starting in June. This expansion comes after Google’s initial pilot program in 2022, which introduced support for RMG, including fantasy sports and rummy, in India.
The pilot program, which concluded on September 28, 2023, was extended for existing apps to continue on Google Play until January 15, 2024. Now, Google has further extended the grace period for developers participating in the pilot program to remain on the app store until June 30, 2024.
Following this date, developers will be able to distribute RMG apps on Google Play to users in India, expanding beyond fantasy sports and rummy, in compliance with local laws and Google’s updated policy, as outlined in a recent Google blog post.
“As the representative body of online gaming in India, we welcome this progressive decision by Google to allow all Pay to Play skill games on the Play Store. We have been advocating the same for and believe that this will give a big boost to the Indian online gaming industry, where over 70 percent of the revenue is generated by Pay to Play platforms,” said Roland Lander, CEO of the All India Gaming Federation, in a statement.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued rules for online gaming, stating that the ministry may designate online gaming Self Regulatory Bodies (SRBs) to verify online real-money games as permissible under these rules.
Google’s initiative has been met with a positive response from the industry, which has faced challenges due to the 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. This move is expected to provide a significant boost to the Indian online gaming sector, where a majority of the revenue comes from Pay to Play platforms.
