Operators will have to act immediately if they want a piece of the “last gold rush” in the online gambling industry, according to gaming consultant Albert Climent of BlueSea Gaming.
If you want to capitalize on India’s growing online gambling market, then you’ll have to act fast.
Entrepreneur and gaming consultant Albert Climent of BlueSea Gaming said despite the heavy restrictions, the South Asian country can be considered as the “last gold rush” in the gambling sector right now.
“I always like to refer (to) it pretty much as the last gold rush in our sector right now, and that’s mainly due to the current financial growth of the middle classes,” Climent told CalvinAyre.com. “There are so many reasons why India is such as great proposition—the Internet penetration, the gambling loving nation. There’s a lot of things you can do as a foreign operator trying to position your interest as for now.”
Climent said operators should pounce on the country’s potential rise in the online gambling market.
“They cannot have a wait-and-see strategy for India. They need to start getting involved in the market,” he explained. “If you look exclusively at the legal scenario of India, certainly India’s a difficult proposition for foreign operators but they can start positioning themselves.”
Climent said the first thing foreign operators should do is to arm themselves with the right business intelligence and to get their feet wet right now. But why the urgency?
“Because whenever we see a fully pledged Indian market, it will be too late. If you take a wait-and-see strategy to India, maybe when things are happening, it will be a bit too late. So you need to get involved,” Climent said.
“Human interaction is very important in India, and that’s why I always tell my clients that they need to have somebody on the ground that understands what’s happening and can give you some kind of cross-cultural bridge between India and foreign way of doing things,” he added.
Gambling in India remains heavily restricted, but there have been improvements recently. Sikkim, located in north India, became the first Indian state to legalize Internet gambling, issuing two online gambling licenses to Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt. Ltd in October 2014 and to Lucknow-based firm better Maarm International Pvt. Ltd. in January.
Sikkim is also one of the three states that allow physical casinos. Goa, in west India, has six land-based and four floating casinos, while the country’s largest integrated casino resort opened in Daman last year.
