NLU Delhi to propose recommendations on online gaming regulations to MeitY

National Law University, Delhi (NLU Delhi) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with not-for-profit organisation E Gaming Federation to recommend regulations in the field of online gaming..The University has been holding roundtable discussions with stakeholders from the legal fraternity, academia and the gaming industry to put together recommendations to be submitted to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). .Commenting on the role of the University in the process, Assistant Professor Raghav Pandey said,“We thought that this is an area we should develop research on and we did a roundtable with key stakeholders and people in the profession and people in academia. The industry globally is a bigger industry than Hollywood and OTT combined. In India, we have 40% of all players but we only account for 1% of revenue. Online gaming cannot be completely banned, but there must be some leeway in terms of freedom to trade and business, and if we allow that, there ought to be a framework. Currently there is no framework, and there should be certain principles based on which the prospective framework can be built upon. We are in process of finding out these principles. We will be constituting another roundtable soon.”.The University is likely to send its proposal to MeitY by the end of 2024 or early 2025..The Central government last year proposed the introduction of online gaming regulations in the form of amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.While the regulations were been welcomed by some, others sought a more robust mechanism in the form of a separate legislation.The amendments provided for the creation of self-regulatory bodies (SRBs) to regulate the content of registered games. However, MeitY later scrapped the idea owing to concerns surrounding the independence of such bodies.