The Indian state of Nagaland has issued its first license for multiple games.
Sachar Gaming Pvt. Ltd. is the first company to receive a “bouquet of games license” to operate multiple games, including poker, rummy, quizzes, auction, binary options, virtual team selection games and virtual sport fantasy league games, from the Nagaland government, Glaws.In reported.
Sachar Gaming operates rummy website khelplayrummy.com and poker website khelplay.com.
The company is the sixth operator to receive a license from the state government, but all the other companies were granted a permit to offer a single game—poker—only.
Nagaland was the first Indian state to pass a specific law, the Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Games of Skill Rules, 2016 and the Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Rules, 2016, that regulates online skill games. It issued its first license to M/s K365 Web Assets Pvt. Ltd., which operates the online poker website khelo365 .com in December. Since then, it has issued similar licenses to three other websites—Pokabunga, Pokerhigh, Club Empire. Baazi Networks Pvt. Ltd., which operates online poker website PokerBaazi.com, had been the last company to have been issued the Nagaland skill games license for a single game.
Sachar Gaming head of operations PK Jain said “the license will bring greater credibility to our brand ensure that our players feel safe and secure while playing on our website.”
“The licensing regime will also enable us to aggressively expand, market and advertise our games. It will also allow us to add newer games and products, which we aim to launch soon. The license will also help us achieve our vision of being the leading skill games operator in the country,” the executive noted.
Nagaland licensees are required to pay an annual fee of INR1 million ($15,000) per game, or INR2.5 million for a “bouquet” of games for the first three years and INR2 million per game per year after that or INR5 million for a further two-year bouquet of games. Licensees also have to pay a quite reasonable 0.5% of gross revenue tax to the state.
