SC's GST ruling on online gaming: A loaded dice

Lawmakers from the Centre and states have agreed to impose GST at the highest slab on online gaming to curb widespread unregulated wagering. And they have chosen to do it with retrospective effect. This was the considered executive response to legal challenges over outright bans of online gaming by several states. Courts were drawing a line between 'games of skill' and 'games of chance'. But this was not helping with an 'epidemic' of digital gambling. Judges generally frown upon retrospective taxes. But Supreme Court's approval of backdated GST claims served to online gaming companies was seen to work for the greater good.

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The verdict has drawn a line between tightly regulated horse racing and unregulated wagering on online gaming. Earlier attempts to segregate games of skill and chance played online didn't yield effective regulation. At one point, GoI was considering setting up a regulator for the industry. But those efforts yielded to the growing consensus over heavy taxation. The tax burden is, on paper, not exceptionally harsh, because online gaming companies are still ready to do business if they do not have to cough up tax claims for earlier years. GoI, on its part, has valid concerns over online gaming being used as a channel for money-laundering. Retrospective tax helps with investigations into illicit money trails.


Collateral damage to online games that do not involve wagering should be tackled after the dust settles over real money games. This is a sizeable and important component of the modern entertainment industry with deep technological linkages. India has strengths in developing this genre as well as a big market among its young population. Regulating this segment will not pose much difficulty once wagering in online games is tightly regulated and taxed heavily. Retrospective tax is supposed to consolidate the gaming industry. Lawmakers and judges believe they have given the industry an opportunity to focus its energies on the healthy aspects of the business. It's a gamble, where the dice have been loaded.