Online Casinos In India

The Current Situation

Only two states allow casino gambling, Goa and Sikkim. There is one casino in Sikkim and 12 in Goa, of which seven are land based and five are floating casinos that operate on the Mandovi river.

Online gambling is in its infancy in India but Sikkim plans to offer three online gambling licence's in 2010. It is expected that other states will follow Sikkim shortly, thereby opening up a major online gambling market throughout India.

The Himalayan state of Sikkim is planning to start the bidding process for online gambling licences.

It is not clear if operators will only be allowed to take bets from gamblers in Sikkim but it seems likely that operators will only bid significant amounts if they can take bets from all of India as Sikkim only has a population of 600,000 people and their per capita income is low.

It is unlikely that operators will be permitted to advertise their services outside Sikkim and it is unclear whether players outside Sikkim will be allowed to play.

At the moment thirteen operators are battling it out for the three licences including major UK companies such as William Hill and Betfair.

Ladbrokes are also said to be interested in getting into the market.

- To Casino And Gambling Guide