One day after awarding the state’s first online skill games license, the Nagaland government has issued its three more licenses, GLaws.in reported.
The first online skill games license was awarded last Wednesday to M/s K365 Web Assets Pvt Ltd, which operates online poker and rummy portal Khelo365.com. A day later, the Nagaland State Lotteries issued another license for a single game—in this case, poker—to Kolkata-based Club Empire Tech Pvt. Ltd.
According to GLaws.in’s Jay Sayta, Club Empire was the first company to secure a Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Nagaland government in August. The LOI is a provisional license issued for “a bouquet of skill games” under Rule 4(6) of the Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Games of Skill Rules, 2016.
Club Empire only offers online rummy at the moment, but founder and CEO Luv Kalra told the news outlet that they are looking to expand to other games such as eSports, virtual sports, binary options, virtual sports league fantasy games and poker, which was why he applied for the “bouquet of games” license option.
Co-founder Swapnil Chaturvedi said receiving the online skill games license has “opened new opportunities in marketing, strategic tie-ups and building players’ trust.”
“Club Empire under the licensing regime will soon launch its revolutionary poker product that will enhance player experience,” Chaturvedi said, according to the news outlet.
The Nagaland government also awarded additional online poker licenses to two other companies.
The first was Quantumskill Gaming and Tech Pvt. Ltd, which operates the online poker site pokerhigh.com. Another company, WYZ Games Pvt. Ltd., which operates poker site pokabunga.com, also secured the fourth license from the Nagaland State Lotteries.
“We have received a license for poker right now and intend to get for the bouquet of games soon,” WYZ Games director Gaurav Gaggar confirmed to GLaws.in.
Nagaland licensees are required to pay an annual fee of Rs.1 million ($15,000) per game, or Rs.2.5 million for a “bouquet” of games for the first three years and Rs. 2 million per game per year after that or Rs. 5 million for a further two-year bouquet. Licensees also have to pay a quite reasonable 0.5% of gross revenue tax to the state.
