The Legitimate Problem of Teen Patti Gambling in India

With the growing popularity of various versions of the teen patti game, many legal issues have been identified in both the casinos and players. Key aspects of this issue are:

Responsible Gambling 

Gambling can generally have a subtle but long-term effect on the finances and health of frequent players. Thus, responsible gambling identifies issues that affect the players’ overall well-being. This includes:

• Underage gambling: Gambling laws in India vary by state. However, the consensus on the legal gambling age is between 18 and 21. While age limits are easily verifiable at physical casinos, online casinos have little to no age verification measures. Hence, many underage gamblers frequently visit these iGaming platforms. Since teen patti rulesare straightforward and the game is generally regarded as a household game, these young gamers unconsciously expose themselves to psychological and financial risks.
• Gambling addiction: The problem gambling prevalence rate in India is 7.4%. Although teen patti is generally a low-reward game because of its affordable bets, the game is intriguing enough to cause addictive gambling behaviour. The small pockets of bets now and again can grow into gambling addiction.

To address these issues, the concerned regulatory bodies must incorporate strict measures as the basic requirements of responsible gambling. These should include time limits, self-exclusion options, pop-up reminders, limits on in-game purchases, and educational resources.

Fair and Transparent Gameplay

Transparency and fairness are two ingredients for building credible teen patti gaming platforms. The law needs to hold the industry accountable to ethical standards that ensure the games are always fair and transparent. This should include strong security networks and anti-cheating algorithms. There must also be a commitment to closely monitoring and upgrading the software as its customer base expands.

Gambling Marketing

Based on the guidelines of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ACSI), iGaming platforms cannot be advertised on local and national television stations. However, these platforms have found alternative ways to reach their target audience. Popular casino marketing strategies include the following:

• Influencer marketing: With over 32% of the Indian populace registered on various social media platforms, these casinos have found a booming online audience. Hence, social media influencers come in handy in promoting these platforms to their followers.
• Affiliate marketing is a cost-efficient way of publicising a casino. Since casinos pay the affiliates a fraction of the referred player’s spending on the platform, they need only negotiate a sharing formula with the affiliates.

While the ACSI has provided some regulatory oversight of casinos on television, there is no regulatory oversight of online casino advertisements. The law needs to regulate the marketing activities of these platforms, with restrictions on the contents advertised and the target audience.